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SEPTEMBER 2007

Time For the NFL to Get Serious About Head-First Tackling! (See"NEWS") Hurrah For Mike Gundy! Someone Holds a Reporter Accountable! (See"NEWS") "Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold. For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it." (Proverbs, Chapter 8, Verses 10-11)   September 28, 2007 -   "We have a right to free speech - but nobody has a right to be heard." Rush Limbaugh ALL NEW! CST's Feature Story on the Black Lion Award   Back in the spring, following the Chicago clinic, I took part in a "Ride-along" with a team of plainclothes Chicago policemen. Click on the "Chicago Police" seal to read more about it and see some exclusive photos, shown only on "News You Can Use"     *********** I recently launched a free e-mail newsletter, aimed specifically at those of you who love and respect the game the way it's seldom seen on TV these days, and still believe that it's possible to play football other than the way the NFL plays it. The third issue is due out next week. To get on the mailing list, e-mail me your name, location and e-mail address at: oldschoolfootball@mac.com (your information will never be given to anyone else)   *********** You have GOT to see what Kansas State has done to note their affiliation with the Black Lion Award!   http://inside.kstatesports.com/football/blacklions/     *********** The AP story out of Houston read:   Houston Texans defensive tackle Cedric Killings was able to stand in the hospital on Monday and doctors are confident he'll soon be walking.   Killings' progress came one day after he left the field on a stretcher after a headfirst collision with Indianapolis receiver Roy Hall.   Killings fractured his C-4 vertebra and was unable to move any of his limbs for a time on the field on Sunday, said Dr. Rob Parrish, a neurosurgeon working with Killings. He has since gained movement in his arms and legs, though he's weak in both hands and his left arm.   "What's it going to take?" asks reader Todd Bross, of Union, Maine.   Good question.   I have to start this out by declaring that I have a dog in the fight (in what's been a very bad week for Michael Vick, I guess I could have picked a better analogy) since I do believe that my Safer and Surer Tackling video is as good as there is.   What's it going to take? It's going to take coaches, at all levels of the game, who have the fear of God thrown into them to the point where they no longer simply pay lip service to safe tackling technniques, but actually insist on them.   And coach them.  Not just talk about them.   It's certainly going to take more than a bunch of silly "See What You Hit" posters on locker room walls, reflective of the simplicity and superficiality of the NFL's "efforts."   Yeah. See what you hit. Until when? Until the last split second? Then can I duck my head and use my helmet as a battering ram?   The NFL's approach to the matter seems to be mostly a question of covering their collective asses so that when a guy does get hurt, a guy in a suit can stand up and read a statement saying, "Our players are told not to..."   Yeah. They're told not to. It's like the coach who watches a defender let his man get open and says, "I told him to cover that guy."   As if that absolves the coach from actually having to teach it.   And it's going to take a massive  campaign to educate the TV guys.  Good luck.  Far too many of them are graduates of the "stick your nose in there, put a hat on the ball" NFL.   Right now, they do seem to understand "helmet-to-helmet" contact, possibly because it makes them sound like insiders.  What they need to start getting after is helmet-to-anything contact.   *********** Coach Wyatt: Thank you for sending out my prayer request...the young man who fractured his T-3,4, and 5 vertebrae was released from the hospital on Monday.  Thank goodness the fractures were stable and close to the shoulder itself.  He is at school and walking around with no collar. He is pretty disappointed about being done with both football and lacrosse, but I think he realizes he is still pretty lucky.  I finally had the heart to watch the game film getting ready for this week, it looked like it was the result of whiplash from the blow across his shoulder from the opponent's facemask...yet another example of why you don't lead with it!   Thanks to all coaches for their support!   Anthony Donner, Medicine Hat, Alberta   *********** There had to be some reason why the previously dead-ass New York Giants pulled one out against the Redskins Sunday. And there was.   Saturday night, at the request of Giants' wide receivers coach Mike Sullivan, his Army football teammate, Army Lieutenant Greg Gadson spoke to the team.   LTC Gadson, whom you have read about on this page, lost both legs to an IED in Iraq in May.   "The players gave him a standing ovation and the volume kept rising," Giant's coach Tom Coughlin said. "He is an incredible man. A powerful man. The power of his spirit. That is what he really did for us, just the idea that the spirit rises above all these adverse conditions. He is still the same man that he always was. He just had a terrible thing happen to him, something he is not going to let hold him back."   On Sunday, Giants' receiver Plaxico Burress made a point of presenting LTC Gadson with the ball he caught for what proved to be the Giants' winning score, and explained why.   "Everyone was moved by what he said," Giants' receiver Plaxico Burress said. "You see a guy go through the things that he has been through and he is in such good spirits." LTC Gadson, like Burress, is originally from Tidewater Virginia.   Burress went on, "It was just unbelievable to come across a person like that who went through a tremendous change in his life. I have never met somebody like that who had a high spirit like nothing was wrong and I was like, 'Wow.' I thought, 'I have a little ankle injury, I have to go out here and give it my best.' All I thought about when I scored that touchdown was that I wanted to find him to give him that football."   *********** Maybe the NFL thinks it's cool the way bad teams turn to good, and good teams to bad, in the course of one year. It's all about parity.   Right. Tell that to your partners at the major TV networks, NFL. They went and scheduled lots of games featuring certain teams, including the Chargers, the Saints and the Bears, who up to this point are stinking the joint out.   *********** Did you catch the hissy fit thrown by one Hope Solo, the spare goalie for the USA women's soccer team?   The USA lost to Brazil, 4-0 (that would be "four-nil") and she made it clear afterwards that she thought things would have been different had she been the goalie.   "It (not starting me) was the wrong decision," she said. "And I think anybody that know anything about the game knows that."   But she wasn't finished.   "Um, there's no doubt in my mind I would have made those saves."   And a final word for the coach: "I'm extremely disappointed in his decision. It doesn't make any sense to me."   *********** Good coaches hold kids accountable - even if it means sitting them down when they miss practice or break team rules. Unfortunately, this can mean losing games. And that can mean getting fired.   Lousy coaches don't bother with stressing discipline or character, or preparing their kids for the lives ahead of them. They overlook rules infractions and sometimes even scrapes with the law. Nothing matters except fielding a powerful football team. They use their players for their own gratification, without regard for what awaits them in life. But because these coaches win games, and that's all the public knows to judge them by, they are widely hailed as "great coaches."   Admit it, people - it can't have been a secret to those who knew him, including his coaches, that Michael Vick had, um, "character issues." Is it possible that if one of them, years ago, had had the stones to deal with this highly talented youngster, instead of just using him to win games, he might have straightened the kid out?   *********** Coach Wyatt: It has been a while since I sent you a message on Hoisington High School Football. We were currently ranked #3 in the State in 3A in Kansas we got beat 13-9 by the #4 ranked team in the State Hesston. Our offense is currently averaging just under 400 yards a game. We play Marion this week and hope to get back on track.   Coach Lonnie Irvin, Hoisington, Kansas   *********** Coach Wyatt, We play in the 9-man division in North Dakota.  I am down to 13 total players.  I am wondering if you have any ideas on practice organization or drills we can do to keep improving with the double wing?  I would appreciate any help.   Coach, What I've had good luck with in small-numbers situations has been setting up the three or four leftover players - and maybe even an assistant coach - in the most critical positions on any particular play.   Just as one example, on a Super Power, we might position a man on the inside shoulder of the playside TE, in the gap between the TE and the playside wingback, at inside linebacker, and playside corner.  You obviously would want everybody else blocking someone, but the reality is that this is all you have, and if you can't block those key defenders, it doesn't much matter what everyone else does.   Likewise with a counter.   And if we are practicing a trap, we want to arrange those four guys in the most critical spots - the man to the inside of the trap, the man you are trapping, and two inside linebackers.   If you were practicing a sweep, you'd want four defenders on the playside.   If you're practicing a pass, you might sometimes have all four cover, or all four rush.  And if it's a sprint-out or roll-out, you will want to have a couple of rushers from the playside and a couple of defenders.   The main thing is to work on those things that are most likely to blow a play up before it even gets going.   Hope that helps.   *********** Meet me in Jacksonville in January.   Movie star Russell Crowe plans to stage what is believed to be the first professional rugby league game on American soil, when his South Sydney Rabbitohs play Leeds, of the English Super League, in Jacksonville, Florida on January 26.   Crowe, who has struck up a friendship with Michigan's Lloyd Carr, recently delivered a speech to Carr's Michigan team that was far more effective than the one Lou Holtz said he'd have given. Holtz gave his on ESPN and the Wolverines lost to Oregon. Crowe gave his directly to the Michigan team, and they went out and clobbered Notre Dame.   Crowe predicted a sell out crowd of 10,000, saying he believed the game could be sold to the American public through the efforts of a local rugby league team, the Jacksonville Axemen.   Most Americans are unaware that there are two forms of rugby, Rugby Union and Rugby League, and the difference between them is at least as pronounced as the difference between American and Canadian football. Rugby League, although not so well known internationally, is far easier for an American football fan to understand. For a better explanation, I refer you to an article by my son Ed, a sports reporter in Australia-http://www.coachwyatt.com/ausfootball.html   *********** Nice to know there's still one major football power whose students can all attend its games.   South Florida, ranked number 18, hosts number-five-ranked West Virginia Friday night in Tampa's Raymond James Stadium, and tickets for the general public have been sold out since early in the week.   But as of Tuesday, student tickets were still available, one free per student (with student ID), along with the right to purchase up to three additional tickets at only $16 each.   I know, I know - you're thinking that there's going to be some scalping going on outide the stadium. All I can say is, if you're not student and you're willing to sit in the student section...   *********** Hurrah for Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy. Who hasn't seen his post-game rant, which within minuites was all over the Internet?   The story which set him off - a derogatory piece about his QB, attempting to delve into reasons why his play has not been up to par - illustrates the perils of political correctness, of what happens when we turn wide-eyed journalism school graduates loose with media credentials. It's the print version of the sideline bimbo.   Now, I do believe that on the semi-professional stage that is big-time college football, a player's on-field performance is fair game. Even then, though, my preference is not to go overboard in identifying tthe "culprit" whose bad center snap at the wrong time or whose missed tackle on the long touchdown run cost their team the game.   But I don't believe a reporter ought to be looking for reasons in a kid's private life to try to explain on-field mistakes.   If a team is recruiting bums and thugs, hold the coaches accountable. And as for the players - don't spare them. Give us the gory details. But if a player is not a thug, and if he hasn't gone out of his way to draw attention to himself, I think it is "garbage" (Coach Gundy's word) to say or print anything - negative or not - about his life outside football, without his consent.   Mike Gundy isn't going to win this one, of course. The old saying is that you should never pick a fight with someone who buys his ink by the barrel. He has to live in Oklahoma, and you'd better believe that the sports people at the Daily Oklahoman will go out of their way to hurt him.   And then, there are the rest of the media jackals, too, who can't stand to see one of theirs actually get a pie in the face for something stupid they've written.   They laugh and laugh as they replay the tirade of an angry coach. And they yuck-yuck as they tell us how many hits it's received on YouTube.   They circle the wagons to protect one of their own. After all, maybe some day they'll take a cheap shot at a kid, and his mean old testosterone-charged coach will light into them!   But they never consider that Sally Rally, star reporter, might be way out of line with her amateur psychoanalysis and her implication that a kid was soft. And they seem genuinely stunned to discover that, for all their supposed influence, the opinion of the vast majority of sports fans is running against them.   The real irony is that those same media types who are in absolute shock over Coach Gundy's performance see nothing wrong with providing a forum for a modern-day Hitler whose country provides the munitions that kill young Americans in Iraq.   Just in case you needed one more illustration of what sort of scum infest our mass media.   *********** Hey Coach! I'm still enjoying your blog, but I'm not coaching at all this year.   Amazing! I am enjoying competing in masters track events and keeping in shape.  I just wanted to say hi, and give you my new primary email address which is alisaute@yahoo.com.  It's a little embarrassing to be a "Ute" these days with the football team's schizo efforts.  My friend Kyle Whittingham looks to be heading for a losing season, and perhaps the ax.  Ute fans won't accept anything less than the "Urban Legend's" efforts.    I hope all is well with you and yours.   Alan Andrus, Salt Lake City, Utah   *********** Greeting Coach Wyatt..........I have to tell you I am having fun this year running the DW. Last year I coach with Coach Garcia Manzano Seniors (14yr olds)..in Albuquerque NM...... Who has been running the DW for many years. This year I am coaching the Manzano Mighty Mites (7yr olds) .....and we have been scoring high numbers with the 88 super power and different formation like over right and over left, we call it strong right strong left.....Now our opponents are adjusting........so it is time to run inside. We have also scored many touchdowns with the Wedge also......However any suggestion for the inside game? And what is your favorite inside running play? I will still continue to execute the 88SP...just thought I would ask for advice? Gary Baldonado, Alburquerque, New Mexico (My favorite inside plays are of course 2 Wedge, and then 2 trap at 3 or 3 trap at 2. HW)   *********** One thing I thought of yesterday: coaches in the Pac-10 are expected to do a teleconference with Pac-10 media (AP, local papers) every Tuesday. Ten minutes per coach. A coach would really step in it by not calling in, and would have the West Coast media pissed. Notre Dame doesn't have that kind of peer pressure, so Weis can cancel his Tuesday presser and he doesn't have to care. He's still living in Fort Belichick.   The Sun Coach took a recent question about NFL jobs and used it to brag about his house:   "First of all, I bought an expensive house and dumped a lot of money into it to make sure my family is happy. I've got indoor riding arenas, I've got outdoor riding arenas, I've got paddocks, I've got a baseball field, a pool, a playroom. I've got a TV room downstairs that's pretty sweet, pool table, ping pong table, a game room. Do you think I'm in a hurry to move somewhere else?"   He forgot a fitness room...and paddocks aren't the only thing full of sh**, or horses' asses.   Seriously though, it sounds like a pretty sweet property. I can't coach college players, either. Can I get a house like that, too?   Christopher Anderson, Palo Alto, California (Just as a refresher - shortly after Charlie Weis' hiring, when it became apparent that this guy really thought he was several cuts above your ordinary good college coach, I referred to him mockingly as The Sun Coach, a reference to King Louis XIV of France, who was so self-important, so full of himself that he referred to himself as The Sun King. I must thank Coach -NFL version - Weis for doing absolutely nothing since then to disprove my initial assessment of him. HW)   *********** Hi Coach, Your videos were awesome and were the basis and inspiration for our offensive scheme.  You might get a kick out of this as I video'd our first game, cut out all the between play inactivity and recorded us beating a team that beat us pretty badly last season.  Thanks for all the tips.  I read your biography and love coaching football.. funny thing is I'm 38, in sales and marketing (like you were when you really moved into coaching).   http://media.putfile.com/GSAPatriots091307   Probably too long to watch the whole thing and our first offensive possession is at 1 minute 57 seconds into the video.  I thought you'd enjoy this as I imagine there aren't many teams of 6, 7 and 8 year olds running your offense, pulling guards and tackles, etc.  By far, our most effective play has been the 47 counter and the bread and butter is the 2 wedge (fullback wedge).   Best regards, Scott Crow, Roanoke, Virginia   *********** Hugh, I was reading your news when the Washington Redskins were on the tube. I couldn't believe they first of all had to spike the ball when they got to the 1 1/2 yard line. Then on 2nd and goal they had their franchise back on the sidelines (Clinton Portis) and they threw a pass. With 3rd and 4th down they ran off tackle and did not score. I don't know of any doubl-wing team that wouldn't have thought they could make 1 1/2 yards on four tries and probably had to clock at near zero. But, we teach run blocking while the NFL can't even get half of their linemen in a three-point stance. So much for the "big boys". They deserved to lose that one. Ron Timson, Umatilla Florida   *********** Why the f--k, when we had the president of Iran visiting our country, didn't we shoot his f--king plane down?   Let the UN complain.I'd make sure we saved one missile for them.   *********** It's been a tough week for Michael Vick.   We all know now that he tested positive for weed, at a time when he had been ordered by the court to remain clean pending his upcoming sentencing.   And we all know that although he copped a plea on federal charges, he now has to deal with the State of Virginia. More legal fees to pay.   And on top of all that, The Royal Bank of Canada, which back in January lent Vick $2.5 million, which he supposedly planned to use to invest in real estate, wants its money back.   Because the loan's terms specify that any employment change negatively impacting Vick's income constitutes a default on the loan, the bank is suing Vick for $2,313,694.37, plus $499 interest per day, starting September 19.   Plus attorney's fees.   *********** Clover, South Carolina's Jet Turner does a great job with his Double-Wing, and as a result, he sometimes finds himself the target of online geniuses like this one: The key to defeating a "Wing T" team like Clover is the line play. Their offensive line does a great job of fold blocking and pulling. They are also VERY efficient in the art of chop blocking. Their coach has repeatedly argued with officials whenever a flag is thrown on one of his OL for chopping an engaged player or chopping outside the box. How to counter this problem? One of two ways: First, the thing a chop-block team absolutely HATES is to be chopped themselves. Using a four man front, cover both gaurds and have your noseguards repeatedly dive into the knees and shins of the OG's. This interupts their fold or pull and makes a two-man pile in both "A" gaps. Their deadly FB Trap will now have issues if the gaurds and NG's are all in a pile around the center. This also eliminates their effort to pull both gaurds on the inside toss. Once again, the object of their offense is to put bodies on bodies (outnumber or equal you) so that those very talented RB's can zip through small gaps and run for daylight in the secondary. The difficulty with this, of course, is getting a clean chop over and over again. One would hope that any OL would learn to avoid the cut by leveraging his hands down and still carry out his fold or pull. It might help to switch out your DL to smaller, faster guys (even if they are out of position, just for this one game). Second, and more risky is the old "Everybody Stand Up" defense. Most coaches nearly have a stroke if there isn't 3, 4 or 5 guys on defense with their hands on the ground. But by standing around in different alignments and shifting before and during the cadence of the QB, you just might catch their OL in a bad adjustment, and someone could be in the backfield at the point of exchange. Obviously the risk factor is you just may shift your butt right into a hole that Jack Black could run through, so your Defensive Coordinator should always have RIGID gap assignments for each player in the box. Once again, you might want to go with speed instead of size. If you look closely at CLover's OL you see lots of shoulder pads and jersies, not a lot of biceps and bellies. They rarely drive block, it's mostly engage blocking. With those backs they seem to think, "We only need 2.5 seconds of engagment," because by then those RB's are in your secondary. I remember a tactic from the 70's that you might want to sprinkle in, as well. The Log Roll. Anyone remember that? It's probably older than the 70's. You have your down DL dive sideways and roll into as many legs of the OL as you can. You want to talk about Making A Pile! If used sparingly, you could tangle 4, 5 or 6 OL in a huge mess. Those backs would bounce, so you better have your corners waiting. For what it's worth.... some thoughts and ideas for stopping the "unstoppable" offense that Clover runs. Any one else have any suggestions? (Please don't respond with the "punch them in the mouth" or "just jack them up" crap. We're assuming you aren't playing with the Pittsburg Steeler's defense)   Hahahaha. I would say that this guy needs to spend more time studying the Double Wing and less time theorizing. (Please excuse that shameless attempt to sell him one of my videos.) "2.5 seconds of engagement?" Are you kidding me? Fella, we coach our players to hit you and stay welded to you! 2.5 seconds of engagement, my ass. You are not giving Coach Turner's linemen and his line coach, Coach Moore, nearly enough credit. Note, by the way, that this blowhard has no idea what a "chop block" is, which doesn't stop him from using the term to describe what we all know is perfectly legal one-on-one blocking at the knees inside the free blocking zone. Oh, and I really like that idea of everybody standing up. I'm thinking maybe 500-600 yards rushing. By halftime.   *********** A friend (who happens to be black) wrote to tell me that one of his son's high school teammates called him a N----, with an uncomplimentary adjective or two preceding it. The school is in an almost totally-white community, and his son is one of the few black kids in his school. I can't remember the last time - if ever - that I heard a white man address a black man with that word, and I have to admit I was shocked that a white kid felt he could do that. Here's what I wrote to my friend...   I have deliberately delayed in responding because I was really shocked to learn that your son has had to deal with a blatant, racial insult.   I would like to try to give you a white man's perspective on what he has been exposed to.   First of all, the kid who said that is undoubtedly the fruit of his upbringing.  He almost certainly lives in a racist environment.   But second of all, although he acted the part of a racist by saying a racist thing,  he isn't necessarily hard-wired to be a racist. He probably has never lived with or been around black people, or had any dealings with any black people.   As someone who knows, I can tell you that the more you are around people, and the better you get to know them, the harder it is to dislike the group they represent.   On the other hand, I believe that when a white person doesn't know black people well, his only exposure to blacks may be to the overexposed so-called hip-hop culture, which many people - myself included - find repugnant.   I doubt that that kid knows your son or dislikes him.  He is making pre-judgments about him based on the only things he "knows" about black people.  Yes, he is pre-judging.   Yes, that is prejudice.   I was guilty of all that. I grew up in Philadelphia, in a lower middle class environment whose chief goal, it often appears to me in looking back, was to avoid contact with blacks (who by the way were seldom referred to by anything as respectful as "blacks").    I never went to school with a black kid until college. Only on rare occasions did we play games with or against each other at the playground, which was located between the "white" neighborhood and the "colored" (that was the most respectful term used) neighborhood. Interestingly, we found that those guys turned out to be pretty good guys. But that was that.   And in high school, in the springtime, on Sundays a bunch of us would go to a park in North Philly (yes, the so-called ghetto) where we'd play softball against a group of older black guys. They were really cool guys. We played for a case of beer. We never won. But we had a blast. But that was that.   I went to all-white Germantown Academy, and never had a black teammate. Most of the schools we played were the same way. Less than a mile away from us, 50-per cent black Germantown High School had a black running back named Bill Cosby. The same. Hell of a football player.   You might say we lived in parallel universes. All those stories he told about playing football or baseball of whatever in the streets? They're all true. Everthing he was doing in his all-black world, we were doing at the same time, in our all-white world.   Don't get me wrong - I had a lot of fun growing up, and thought nothing about the fact that I lived in a segregated environment. Among all the things I missed out on because of it, I place the fact that Bill Cosby and I could have been teammates high on the list.   I never played football with a black teammate until college, and even then we never had more than two black players on our team.   Out of school and working for a living, I travelled through the still-segregated South of the 1960s, and thought nothing of it. It was just the way things were. I visited my company's paper mill in Savannah, Georgia and saw the water coolers with the signs on them reading "FOR WHITE MEN ONLY," and I saw black workers and white workers lined up at separate pay windows. And I thought nothing of it. It was just the way things were.   Bear in mind now, that I was supposedly an educated person. And I was by no means different in my thinking from anyone else I knew.   It wasn't until I was in my late 20's when I went to work for a very enlightened brewing company, among the first in the industry to hire black men in management positions, that my attitude began to change. For some reason, I became friends with a black guy named Carl Anderson, who was in charge of our Washington, DC branch operation. Our wives became friends, too, and we saw each other socially. I'm not sure how much Carl learned from me, but I learned a lot from him. I learned, among other things, how fragile was the black man's sense of accomplishment. Carl was a college graduate and he held a management position in a large company at a time when it was rare to find black men in such positions. But one day, we'd arranged to meet in Baltimore for lunch, and knowing that there was always the possibility that a black man might be refused service, I called ahead to make sure there'd be no problem. Wow. I was so proud of myself for being so thoughtful that I told Carl that we'd have no problem because I'd called ahead. Hugh Wyatt, civil rights leader.   I'll never forget the look on Carl's face. It went back and forth between anger and sadness. As far as he'd come profesionally, he was still vulnerable to the slights of a racist society, and I was so proud of myself for being his guide, so to speak, that I was too stupid to understand how Carl would be hurt.   A few years later, I played minor league ball in Frederick, Maryland, and had several black  teammates, running the gamut from teenage thugs to college grads. Maybe because he and I were among the few college graduates on the team, I became good friends with a linebacker from Morgan State named Clarence "Motts" Thomas. He and his wife, Cynthia and my wife and I would often drive to away games together, and our kids came to love the Thomases.   You might say that I had begun to see the light, and it didn't  come any too soon, because after two years playing in Frederick, I got my first coaching job in another Maryland city, Hagerstown. The team I inherited was roughly 1/3 black. This was 1970, and Hagerstown was a very segregated town. It was only about ten miles south of the Mason-Dixon line, but in its racial thinking it was as southern as it could get. As an example, my own landlord, who owned a bar and restaurant, told me that my team wasn't welcome in his place after our games because, you know, we can't have these people in here, blah, blah, blah.   Don't get me wrong. I still love Hagerstown. It was a nice place for our kids to grow up. But it had a long ways to go in terms of racial equality.   I still have a special place in my heart for the guys who played on those teams. We had black guys from the "black section" of Hagerstown, roughly centered on Jonathan Street, we had small-town black guys from neighboring West Virginia, and we had some college-educated black guys from Baltimore and Washington. We had white guys from a variety of places, upbringings and education, too. And we were so intent on winning games that we never gave a thought to how well everyone got along. In retrospect, it was near-miraculous. Society as a whole - and Hagerstown for sure - lagged way behind us.   My kids were 10, 8, 6 and 4 when I started coaching the Hagerstown Bears, and they got to know the men who played football for me, black and white. Right in front of their eyes, they saw those men respecting each other and working together, without any racial caste system whatsoever. They had their favorite players, some of them white and some of them black. I am blessed that my kids had the chance to develop their racial attitudes from men of such quality.   Which brings me to the present. It is my good fortune to have met and developed relationships with coaches all over the country, black and white. And Hispanic and Asian and American Indian. My life is enriched by those relationships. I couldn't begin to name all of the coaches here, but I can't imagine never having gotten to know them.   My point is not that I am a great civil rights pioneer.  It is simply that I know from my own life, looking back at the racially-segregated environment I grew up in, that people can change. I'm just a living example of a guy who finally saw the light.   And so can the young man who directed the insult toward your son.   If he is up to it, I suggest that he approach that guy and say something like, "Maybe you don't understand the meaning of what you called me.   I'm going to do you a favor and tell you, as a friend, that there are places where you could get killed for calling a man that.   "I'm asking you not to use that word. Watch me as the season goes on.  And after you've gotten to know me, if you think I'm an a**hole, then call me an a**hole, and we'll deal with that.   "But right now, I really think don't think it's a good idea for anybody to be using the N-word."   For what it's worth, I'm especially shocked because I can't remember the last time I've heard the N-word used by a white person.   I can think of two appropriate quotes:   One came from the minister at the baptism of one of my grandsons: "Jesus meets us where we are, and takes us where we need to be."   The other came from Dr. King: "The best thing you can do with an enemy is make him a friend."   Your son has a wonderful opportunity to educate this young man - to meet him where he is, and help take him to where he needs to be.   And maybe make a friend in the process.     *********** Coach -  Not to Keep piling on that  pompous Arrogant A**hole Weis, but you forgot Two more  Reasons to  root against that No good Pr**k   1 ) He sued  contractors over  some type of renovation that he did not like , while coaching for the Patriots ( Is this guy a Sue Happy A**hole ? )    2 ) He  loves to come across as some type of New Jersey "Tough Guy " ( IE Parcells )   What a lot of people don't know is Weis came from an Upper Middle Class family - his father was highly successful dentist. I wouldn't say he was a child of privilege, but I don't  think Weis   and his family were struggling & scrappin on the hard scrabble streets of Jersey.   John Muckian - Lynn, Massachusetts   *********** Florida State has fired a couple of university employees and turned itself in to the NCAA for "academic fraud" involving 23 athletes, most of them scholarship athletes.   Among the violations reported were having one student take a test for another, "Learning Specialists" writing papers for the "athlete-students."   It was reported that the athletes represented nine different sports.   Nine sports, huh? I'm betting that it breaks down something like this:  one each from baseball, track, swimming, golf, soccer, tennis; four or five from basketball; and 12 or 13 from football.   *********** The season is still young, but it does appear that the Falcons' DeAngelo Hall already has the Knucklehead of the Year Award locked up. With an oak leaf cluster. There has to be something amiss in the mental makeup of a guy who will incur 67 yards worth of penalties on a drive that allows the opponents to tie the score. Hell, most NFL teams can't drive the ball 67 yards!   The oak leaf cluster is awarded for then going off on his coach on the sidelines.   I'm telling you, guys - there are way too many NFL teams, and way too many jobs. If the league were to downsize, an awful lot of thugs now playing in the NFL would be back home dealing drugs and coaching youth football.   Hmmm. On second thought, better leave them where they are. Forget what I said about downsizing. At least for a couple of hours every Sunday, the NFL does keep these guys off the streets and out of strip joints.     All football programs are invited to participate in the Black Lion Award program. The Black Lion Award is intended to go to the player on your team "Who best exemplifies the character of Don Holleder (see below): leadership, courage, devotion to duty, self sacrifice, and - above all - an unselfish concern for the team ahead of himself." The Black Lion Award provides your winner with a personalized certificate and a Black Lions patch, like the one worn at left by Army's 2005 Black Lion, Scott Wesley, and at right by Army's 2006 Black Lion, Mike Viti. There is no cost to you to participate as a Black Lion Award team. FOR MORE INFORMATION   ALL NEW! CST's Feature Story on the Black Lion Award BECOME A BLACK LION TEAM GIVE THE BLACK LION AWARD TO ONE OF YOUR PLAYERS! Will Sullivan, Army's 2004 Black Lion wore his patch (awarded to all winners) in the Army-Navy game (FOR MORE INFO) The Black Lion certificate is awarded to all winners   Take a look at this, beautifully done by Derek Wade, of Sumner, Washington --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Yy6iA_6skQ

Wherever Did Weis Get The Bright Idea of a Sunday Practice? (See"NEWS") How Can You Be an ACC All-Star Without Ever Playing in the ACC? (See"NEWS") "Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold. For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it." (Proverbs, Chapter 8, Verses 10-11)   September 25, 2007 -   "Managers that always promise to 'make the numbers' will at some point be tempted to 'make up' the numbers." Warren Buffett ALL NEW! CST's Feature Story on the Black Lion Award   Back in the spring, following the Chicago clinic, I took part in a "Ride-along" with a team of plainclothes Chicago policemen. Click on the "Chicago Police" seal to read more about it and see some exclusive photos, shown only on "News You Can Use"     *********** I recently launched a free e-mail newsletter, aimed specifically at those of you who love and respect the game the way it's seldom seen on TV these days, and still believe that it's possible to play football other than the way the NFL plays it. The third issue is due out next week. To get on the mailing list, e-mail me your name, location and e-mail address at: oldschoolfootball@mac.com (your information will never be given to anyone else)   *********** You have GOT to see what Kansas State has done to note their affiliation with the Black Lion Award!   http://inside.kstatesports.com/football/blacklions/   *********** Coach Wyatt: During last Friday night's game, a freshman (15 years old) defensive back of mine was blocked by a wide receiver (from the front) and suffered fractures to three of the vertebrae in his neck.  He has feeling and movement in his extremities and can walk (though he is confined to bed rest) but the doctor has already told him that he will not be able to play any contact sports again- pretty devastating as he is both a football and lacrosse player.  Would you be able to ask our fellow coaches out there reading your 'news' for their prayers...it would certainly be appreciated!   Thanks! Anthony Donner, Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada *********** Hugh, A couple of things...   I was shocked to hear the Mike Utley statement when I read it... Everett executed a proper form tackle except for the most important and vital part...keeping his head up. I talked about it with my team before we practiced a four station tackling drill and emphasized to them that this guy suffered a severe injury on average NFL contact because his head was down.   We are really emphasizing our tackling this season in a way we never have before and as you know we are using your safer and surer tackling technique. My headmaster who is one of my assistant coaches, and still holds the NCAA all division record for most carries in a game with 61, commented to me in our first intra-squad scrimmage that he noticed that all the boys were keeping their heads up and tackling safely.   While they're at it, the NFL should tack on some more $$$ to Belichick's fine for his awful looking hoodies. I'm not sure I go for the full business suit on the sidelines either...it looks kind of silly with a MOTOROLA headset on. Just look like a coach for crying out loud...not a hobo or attorney. Take care.   Sam Keator, Litchfield, Connecticut (I notice that in a very professional video put out by the National Athletic Trainers and distributed to high school coaches, they go on and on about the need to keep the head up, etc., etc. Well, duh. But it's just words unless someone with more marketing clout than me will come out and show coaches how to teach tackling properly. They conclude with a final reminder, which I think is dangerous as hell - "Shoulder down, head up." Now, I am not a certified trainer, an orthopedist, or a neurologist, but I am a coach. I think it's probably been a while since any of the acknowledged experts on the video has put on a helmet and shoulder pads, but I think any coach realizes that there really isn't a lot of room between the back of the helmet and the top of the shoulder pads, and as a result, the ability of the neck to flex backward is severely limited. This means that if "the shoulder goes down," it is all but impossible for the head to stay up. Try it and see for yourself. As a result, in many of the "safe" tackles shown, employing supposedly "safe" technique, the head is dangerously close to being down. I think that what is needed is the elimination of the "shoulder down" terminology, and an emphasis on using the front of the shoulder pads, not the top. "Eyes to the sky" - this is the only way I know of that a player is assured of keeping his head up. HW)   *********** Haven't spoke to you in a while, but Darlene, the kids and I are doing fine.  Hope you and your family are doing well.    This will be my 20th year coaching football and I'm only 40.  WOW...!!  The last 20 years  I've won my share of games and lost just as well.  During the last 4 years I've lost more games than I care to count and football wasn't as fun as it use to be.  What has bothered me the most was when I was run out of High School football because I won more games than the Varsity...AND to make matters worse I ran this crazy looking,no passing, non-pro style offense..????!!   (go figure).   I entered this season having only 8 kids on my youth team. By mid August I was told by the club commissioner that it was MY job to go and recruit kids for the program.......    well I  tried that and many parents chose to take their kids someplace else. After forfeiting the first game due to lack of players, the commish decided he was going to scoop up kids from another part of town.   Now I have 22 kids, 14 are from an under served part of town.   So my assistant and the commish have been buying additional equipment just to suit these kids up who say they want to play the game I  love......   Before these new kids came I was ready to quit and take a position at  another club.  This other club has TONS of kids and more athletes than you can shake a stick at.  That seemed like the place for me.......  Every  coach wants to win and after the beating I've taken the past 4 years...I felt like I deserved it.   I've never been in a championship game much less the playoffs so I felt it was time to move on........  Most of the kids on my team are not what you would call skill kids or athletes.....   Then something happened that made me realize how selfish I was being.  One of the new kids asked me if I was going to be his coach..  I asked him "why do you want to know"....he said "because I've never had a coach before and  I've always wanted to play football"   Coach Wyatt that sealed it for me......I'm a football coach and a good one..!!!   Win, lose or draw,  I coach kids and that makes me a winner every time.....!!!!!!   Sorry for being long winded, but Darlene felt like I should share that  with you.   Give my best to Connie.   Respectfully; Coach Dwayne Pierce, Washington, DC   *********** NEWS ITEM: President Hugo Chavez threatened on Monday to take over any private schools refusing to submit to the oversight of his socialist government, a move some Venezuelans fear will impose leftist ideology in the classroom.?   We're safe in this country - we've already done it for him. Chrisopher Anderson, Palo Alto, California   He simply wants to bring their schools up to (down to?) the level of our public schools. Maybe the NEA could send some advisors to Venezuela. At the very least, we should send Jimmy Carter, who helped President-for-Life Chavez get elected in the first place. HW   *********** SUBSTITUTE THE NAME OF YOUR MOST HATED RIVAL: A (insert the rival's location) area mortician had a new apprentice who was learning the embalming ropes. The apprentice walked into the embalming room where a cadaver was lying on a table. Thinking he knew enough to begin the procedure without his boss, he began examining the body. When he rolled it over, to his amazement he found there was a cork in its (anus). Mystified, he pulled it out, and immediately heard the (rivals) fight song - coming out of the guy's butt.   Startled, he quickly shoved the cork back into the cadaver and ran upstairs to find his mentor.   "Sir," he said, "You've got to come down and help me. I've just seen something I can't believe."   Annoyed by the interruption, the mortician stopped what he was doing and followed the apprentice downstairs.   "There!" the young apprentice said, pointing at the body. "Look at the cork in its (anus)! I couldn't imagine what it was doing there so I pulled it out, and... Please - you do it."   The mortician was a bit surprised to see the cork, too, so he walked to the table and removed it - and immediately the (rival's) fight song started playing.   Quickly replacing the cork, he turned to his assistant and said impatiently, "What's the big deal? I've heard thousands of a**holes sing that song."   *********** Kansas - The Beloit Trojans are now 3-1 after a solid 54-14 road victory at league foe Southeast of Saline.  After a scoreless first quarter, Beloit took a 20-6 lead into the half and then exploded in the third quarter to run the lead to 40-6 heading into the fourth quarter.  The Trojans tacked on two more scores playing the jv kids in the fourth quarter and coasted to the final of 54-14.   Junior wingback Cas Spangler put up very impressive numbers once again with 15 carries for 315 yards and 4 TDs as well as a 97 yard kick return for a TD.  The Trojans' Double Wing offense ran for 457 yards and 7 TDs on the night, and the defense played well for most of the game but didn't tackle as well as in the previous game.  However, the defense did come up with two interceptions and several sacks.   The Trojans will be on the road against a very good Ellsworth team (4-0) next Friday night.  The game will feature two of the best running backs in the state and should be exciting.  It will be streamed on-line at http://www.geocities.com/kdnssports/.   *********** I was having a beer with a friend last night, and he got very insistent about his preference for the NFL over college football. I came back with boilerplate criticisms of the NFL - it's simultaneously over- and under-coached, too many teams for the talent pool, copycat offenses, conservative and risk-averse coaching, bogus rules that tilt the field to offenses that still can't perform, dumba$$ commentators, paranoid/personality-free coaches, defenders are better than offensive players, corporate hegemony, too many field goals, thinking it invented football, and the field needs to be widened. (Whew!)   My pal said the college game "looked slow," said the NFL had "a great product" and claimed he refused to watch bowl games and accused bowls of being a "trophies for everybody" system. (He claimed some gladiatorial desire for playoff "elimination" - I told him the teams had been eliminated in the regular season and that playoffs disincentivized weekly excellence. He didn't buy it.)   I suppose you also have a few friends who are politically liberal, too. Like this guy, they are unavoidable and they can't be helped. HW   *********** Where did Weis get the idea?   Not from the pros.   Name me one pro coach who would have brought his players in on Sunday for a four-hour practice, including scrimmages, after a Saturday loss.  Har, har.  Ever hear of a players' union?   Not from real, genuine college coaches - you know, the kind who had plenty of college coaching experience before they got their first college head coaching job. Charlie is an authentic NFL genius, but he seems to be having his problems coaching college guys.   (Besides, isn't there some NCAA limit on the number of hours of practice time allowed per week?  There might even be a Notre Dame rule against practicing at a time when good young Catholics are supposed to be attending Mass.)   So where did The Sun King get the idea?  I'm betting he went back to his high school days.   That's the last time he was a head coach, so what other experience did he have to draw on? Only a desperate - or overly-egotistical -  high school coach would do what he did to his kids.  Jeez, why didn't he just make them stay out after the game and run 100 goal-line to goal-line sprints?  Or make them run the stadium steps 100 times?   Then at least they'd have Sunday off.   Oh, well - that'll teach them to embarrass (the word he used) The Sun King!   *********** Coach, Off to 2-0 after beating North Branford on Friday 35-32 in 4 OT's. It was 14-14 after regulation...it's a long story (I would be curious how other states handle overtime. If you have any insight, please let me know. What we do could really result in a dangerous situation) and it was a really long game. NB has been in the state semi's several times over the last 10 years, including 05 and 06. It's been years since we've beaten them. We won the game with 7g pass, completed to the TE. It's small town football, but the crowd was huge and into the game (so loud that NB had two procedure penalties because their kids couldn't hear their quarterback in the 4th OT). When we won our student body, cheerleaders, etc. stormed the field. It was wild. You would have loved the game and the environment.   On to Cromwell next Saturday. The worst record they have had in their 5 year history is 8-2. We've never beaten them. They are well coached by a very professional, very likeable staff (we joke that we are enemies for a week) who really know what they are doing. I have a tremendous amount of respect for them and their program. We're polar opposites on O...spread vs DW. They hate playing us, as we've given them fits (though lost) the last few years. It should be quite the game.   I hope you are well and I trust you are enjoying the demise of Charlie W.   Respectfully, Patrick Cox, Tolland HS, Tolland, Connecticut (I've never been in a game that went beyond two OTs. That was tough enough.   The various state federations appear to have a certain amount of latitude in determining how they will structure their overtime.   In Oregon and Washington, the teams start from the 25 for  - I believe - the first two OTs and then it's started from the 10.     Kansas, the state which gets credit for the overtime  plan all high schools and colleges use- starts immediately from the 10.  The name "Kansas Plan," originally given to it, seems now to have fallen into disuse.  - I'm sure that the NFL would love to use it, too, instead of their stupid win-the-toss-and-go-kick-a-field-goal "sudden death" ("slow death" would be more apt) plan, and they probably have a half-dozen young guys in suits  trying to figure out a way to adopt it without having to give someone else credit for the idea. HW)   *********** Although I am no big fan of "made for national TV" high school games, I have to agree with a few of the points made by Ben Rushing, of Fort Worth/Baghdad...   Why High School Football on TV is better than College or the NFL on TV. (My answers are in bold)   1. Absolutely no sideline or in game interviews at anytime. (exception Texas and Mass who play under 2005 NCAA rules) (That will change if the audience grows.)   2. You actually have a chance to see more than 2 running backs in the backfield at any given time. That and you can see more experimentation on all sides of the ball. (hey you might see the wing-t or the veer option!) (Agree - to a point. But more and more big-time HS programs are aping the major colleges.)   3. There is never any cross promotion for women's soccer, the WNBA, or made for TV movies. (See response #1.)   4. Unlike the NFL... When you see an unsportsmanlike conduct or an unnecessary roughness, more than likely it actually was. (Agree.)   5. 4th down is actually fun to watch, sometimes they go for it on 4th and 2. (Houston Nutt didn't think it was fun watching the Razorbacks go for it on 4th and one against Kentucky and get stuffed.)   6. Cool uniforms to look at, sometimes they are totally original. At halftime you sometimes get to watch the marching band. (See response #1)   7. The coach's future at the school is not talked about, nor are they criticized openly, unless it was a really really dumb call that even your wife would have known. (Agree. But then, only top programs, whose coaches are well-ensconced, appear on TV.)   8. The announcers usually talk about the game or the rule differences, rather than what shows make their season debut that night. (See repsonse #1.)   9. The extra points are worth watching since most HS coaches can't teach kicking and the kids usually miss at least once every night. (Not at the level of the schools we see on TV.)   10. No celebrity announcers telling you only two of the players starting on that side of the ball with silly monikers like "the fridge" or "play maker" or any other such shenanigans. They actually show all of the kids names on the screen. (Agree.)   11. Since most ignorant fans dismiss the games as "just" a high school game, you can be assured that the only people watching the game are real football fans, and people with some sort of interest across the country. (Unfortunately, if that's all who's watching, the games won;t be on TV too much longer.)   12. Because Thursday night College games usually suck. (Disagree.)   13. If a kid drops the F-bomb or flips the bird, he gets ejected. (Agree.)   14. The fans can't be heard giving a collective "A-- H--E!" Call to the refs, since most of the fans are students, parents, and classy football fans. That and you can be assured that at least once that night the refs (who usually are not very experienced or knowledgeable) will make a blatantly bad call. (I'm not sure why the likelihood of a "blatantly bad call" adds to the appeal of any game.)   15. Even with the cameras, you can be assured that what you are viewing is pure football. Since the Big networks will usually think (incorrectly) that other sports would rather be watched than a HS football game between two well coached schools. (Not by any stretch would I call all of the schools represented in made-for-TV games "pure.")   16. No ugly "throw back" uniforms - most HS's know that if the unis didn't look good the first time, then they probably won't look good this time around. (No argument there.)   17. The announcers usually refrain from saying the obvious, John Madden can't help but do this. (Actually, I was enlightened when I heard The Great Madden tell his Sunday Night Audience that no one should talk in the huddle except the quarterback. I had no idea! I always thought that the reason for the huddle was for the quarterback to ask his receivers who can get open - answer: all of them - and to ask if anyone else had any suggestions! Lord, that blowhard sure can waste valuable air time explaining the most elemental points of the game, in this case one that all kids of my generation learned in third grade!)   Ben concludes by adding, "After watching SNF on NBC I don't think that Hispanics need to be insulted by the thinking that Hispanic Heritage Month needs to be celebrated by translating simple words into Spanish when showing the score."   ***********News from the No Fundamentals League...   54 seconds left and the Seahawks had just scored to go ahead, 24-21. But with Carson Palmer and the Bengals' receivers, they had a decent chance to drive for a tieing field goal. And then the Bengals' kickoff return man, who undoubtedly had heard - and ignored - middle-school, and high-school and college coaches preach protecting the ball, ran into traffic loosely swinging his ball-carrying arm, and - bingo! - fumble. Seahawks' ball. Game Over.   Down 24-17 and under a minute to play, the Redskins took four shots from the Giants' one, and couldn't score. Paging John Riggins.   Wide open in the end zone, the Cowboys' Patrick Crayton dropped a pass thrown right into his gut. From maybe 15 yards away. In his behalf, he was probably thinking about which dance to do.   *********** Good morning Coach Wyatt,  Mid Valley traveled across the border yesterday to take on the Mexicali Cety's Zorros and came out with a 33-0 victory.  It now appears that teams are talking to each other as the defense was set up to stop wedge.  No problem.  Group B scored on a nice little 47c, then group A got their most significant work this season, with scores on Red Red and 88 superpower, then just to prove our point, 2 more TD's on 2 wedge. We are now 3-0, and up 99-0.   Thanks again, Matt Marrs, Imperial, California   *********** Hugh, We won yesterday by a score of 26-12. My A-back, the boy coming off ACL surgery from last season, led the way with 4 TD's and 250 yards rushing on 11 carries. Overall, our o-line played poorly. In short, if we did not have that boy, I don't think we win the game. Defensively, my kids did not carry out their option assignments, but we did tackle well which saved our bacon. So we have some work to do this week. My starting QB got a concussion and will be out next week. Our back-up will have to step-up.   Also our starting FB will be out as well. Fortunately, our back-up FB is pretty darn good in his own right. We also get back from injury a kid who played some wingback towards the end of last season and showed some flashes of brilliance. The game plan however, will be pretty simple, put the ball in the hands of our stud and let him run. Lots of Stack I. We will be re-shuffling our line and pretty much putting in the kids who show they have a set of stones regardless of size.   The o-line got off the ball and just stood right up and made no headway. Any ideas on drills to get them driving off the ball harder and lower? My line coach is almost at his wit's end with this group.   Best Wishes, Sam Keator, The Forman School, Litchfield, Connecticut (Just as I contend on A Fine Line, they need to understand that the contact is NOT the block - the block is what happens AFTER the contact.  Until they do understand that, you will see a lot of hopping in place and bracing themselves,  letting the defenders take it to them.  And even the guys who do make good contact will come to a stop, allowing the defenders they blocked to get back into the play.   Blocking is all in the feet.  It consists of getting into the defender and then driving the feet to overcome his resistance - and MOVE him.  I really think that they could have chosen a better word than "block", because I prefer that kids think of themselves as bulldozers rather than as mere  roadblocks.  It may be a defender's job to hold his ground, but in our system, we want to do more than hold our ground - we want to  MOVE people.   I preach  the "Twelve Step Cure" -   every single day, every offensive player needs to block against a man holding a hand-shield --- and on every block - practice or game - it isn't considered a block unless the blocker has taken 12 steps AFTER making contact.   Nine times our of ten, when a player misses a block, it is a result of failure to take the 12 steps.  Nine times out of ten, when I ask a player whose man made the tackle if he took the 12 steps, he will admit, sheepishly, that he did not.   This has to become a habit. Otherwise, blockers get the idea that all they have to do is make contact and brace themselves. HW)   *********** Lansingburgh 34  Gloversville 21 - Being ranked #1 in the state gives us a  huge target on our backs. Everyone is playing their A game against us, but besides that - A back Kenny Youngs  16 carries 167 yards 3 scores; B back Marcus Hepp 11 carries 107 yds and a score; B back Nyquan McGirt  6 carries 124 yards and a td.   Pete Porcelli, Lansingburgh, New York   *********** A friend who likes Notre Dame - but is still neutral on Charlie Weis - asked why don't I like Weis. For openers...   (1) He came to ND posing as God's gift to college football - those poor college coaches had never seen anything like the offense that he was going to show them.  He brought with him the arrogance of the NFL and its lack of respect for any other kind of football.   (2) He has remained a cocky pr--k ever since, right up until he started getting his ass handed to him this season, and then he started making excuses and hiding from the news media.   (3) He underwent the surgery so that he'd been seen as more hireable, then later said it was for health reasons. He sued the surgeon because he had complications - which the surgeon said resulted because he wasn't willing to follow doctor's orders and remain inactive for six months . See, he needed to get to spring practice.  Screw the doctor. Wait - make that sue the doctor. (He lost the lawsuit.)   (4) He has blamed his current situation on Tyrone Willingham, when the fact is that he has now had three recruiting classes, and players who got him all his wins so far - Quinn, Zamardjia, Zbikowksi, etc - were all Winningham's recruits. (In Coach Willingham's behalf, he has been nothing but classy whenever asked about Notre Dame's problems.)   (5) I believe Demetrius Jones - that Weis was not honest with him.   Then they went and pulled the old no-release-from-the-scholarship nonsense. And then they backed off that stance, and in an act of paranoia that Weis had to have brought with him from the NFL, said Jones could have his release to go anywhere - except a school that plays Notre Dame.  Now, wait a minute - if he's good enough that they're worried about him coming back to beat them, why wasn't he good enough to play for them? Why was he simply filling the QB spot until young Jimmy Clausen came back from his injury?   (6) He came up with that Sunday-morning-after-the-game practice, all-positions-are-open garbage last week, something which no competent college coach would ever do.  For sure, he never would have pulled that crap in the NFL. I heard him say that it wasn't meant as punishment, and of coruse I believe him. I have heard of a couple of desperate high school coaches doing something like that. But not many.   (7) His team is poorly coached and poorly prepared.  I think it's because he doesn't understand that unlike in the NFL, you have to do more than show these players cards with the plays on them.  You actually have to coach these kids - work to make them better - instead of simply drafting or trading for better players, or dipping into the free agent market.  As the late Eddie Robinson once said, "You get a better player, or you get a player better."  Weis comes from a league where you go out and get a better player.  If a guy's not playing well, you send his ass down the road. In college you have to get a player better.   (8) He's in love with his stupendous, giant playbook, even though it doesn't seem to include anything that his players can run.  Classic CYA, Charlie - if you keep running your stuff and it doesn't work, then it's not your fault, is it?  It's the players' fault! Now, it's obvious to everybody that his linemen can't pass protect.  So is there anything else you can do when you can't protect a guy in the pocket, Charlie?  Is there anything else you can do when you can't run the ball with your blocking schemes, Charlie? Oh, sorry - I forgot that all your experience is in the NFL, where quarterbacks aren't supposed to run out of the pocket, and where a running game is nonexistent unless you have superior talent.   (9) At least in my mind, he built his reputation as the beneficiary of Bill Belichick's cheating. It's a lot easier to hit when you know a fastball's coming.   (10) He coaches for Notre Dame, whose greed (their own network, their insistence on playing as an independent in football so as not to have to share bowl money with any conference members) and arrogance (playing as an independent while insisting on special favors from the BCS) are unsurpassed. This from a program that manages to deceive the public by trading on the marvelous legacy of Rockne, Leahy and Parseghian, when the reality is that Notre Dame football has gone years without a bowl win.   (11) Notre Dame gave Tyrone Willingham the shaft.   I could go on, but why bother?   *********** Coach I thought I would give you an update on the last two weeks.  A week ago we won 20-0.  We only ran 16 plays before we had to pull our starters (18 point rule), we rushed for 154 yards and threw for 55.  We scored on two counters and a wedge.  Last night we won 28-8, our JV was scored on late.  Again we only ran 19 plays before we pulled our starters, we rushed for 165 yards and threw for 55.  We score on 88 SP, XX 77 counter Red Red, and wedge.  It helps that our defense is solid, they gave up -6 yards two weeks ago and -20 last night, thats a total of 25 yards in three games.  Last nights team gave us all we could handle last year.  Next week will be our biggest challenge, they won our division last year and beat us on a last minute play, we owe them some payback.   Hope all is well with you. Thanks, Dave Kemmick, Mountville Black Knights, Mountville, Pennsylvania   *********** Coach, I'm hoping you can provide a resource for H.S tight ends.My 14 yr old son is starting on a  H.S. team that has no seniors. He has enjoyed 3 years of success in middle school football and wrestling but is outweighed at 160 lbs vs. DE's at 220-230lbs. He has good feet and hands and has been taught drive blocking and sealing off but is getting manhandled by some. What other techniques are useful and permitted, can he roll down to cut his man? any ideas or direction? Thank you.   In your son's offense, the TE may be outside the free blocking zone, which extends four yards to either side of the ball.  If that's the case, he can't block low. When that rule was passed, they were thinking of player safety, but they did wind up taking away a small man's equalizer. In our offense, with no line splits to speak of, our TE's and the linemen they block are inside the free blocking zone.  (That's one of the reasons we run what we run.)   In our scheme, we rarely ask a TE to drive block a man by himself.  Most of the time, even against a bigger opponent, he has some form of an advantage going for him.   His basic blocks are (1) Double-teaming with the tackle; (2) Double-teaming with the wingback to his outside; (3) Blocking down on a lineman to his inside; (4) Walling off a LBer to his inside; (5) Cutting off a linemen to his inside on a play going away; (6) reaching a man on him or to his outside on a play to his outside.   (3), (5) and (6) are the few times he really goes one-on-one.. If we find he can't handle his man in (3), then we double-team.  In (5) and (6), he "scramble blocks."  Basically, it is a way for the smaller man to tie up a bigger man.  We teach him to throw his inside hand past the defender's outside knee so he winds up bear-crawling his man - keys to successful technique: head up, head upfield, knees never hit the ground.   Not sure that your son's coaches would appreciate this, unless he is free to do whatever works, but we find that after a defender has had this done to him a few times, it takes a lot of the aggressiveness out of his charge.   *********** Coach Wyatt, How do you handle a blitzing middle backer in a 5-3 defense?  He would come on either side of the center and be in the backfield disrupting plays like 88/99SP and 38/29Reach.   What formation can I get in that can spread the defense and still allow me to run our base plays and throw passes?   Coach- When we play a 5-3, it falls under our "T-N-T" rule which means we automatically block down on all powers and counters.  The center has to recognize this and make a "DOWN (or DOG or DOMINO or whatever) call.   On 29-39, the B-Back should take care of the blitzing Lber if he comes backside. If he comes playside, he is the responsibility of the backside guard, who has to look for anything coming, and will trap him.   Your best bet to spread a decent receiver and still run almost anything is to split one end (either LEE or ROY) or to split him to the opposite site (OVER or UNDER).   If you run, say, LEE, there are really only two plays you can't run: (1) you can't run Super Power away from the split end - you have to run Super-O, because you don't have a TE back there to cut off the guy who might chase your tackle; (2) You can't run 7-G because you don't have a TE on the left.   *********** A guy in Merlin, Oregon named Mike Udink is pissed. The state won't let him keep his vanity plates.   The state claims to work hard to avoid issuance of plates that might "offend or alarm." They check on reverse spelling and mirror images, as well as numeric spelling, which has insinuated itself into the matter as a result of text messaging. They're looking for such things as "intimate body parts or sexual or bodily functions," and "references in an alarming or offensive manner to race, color, gender, ethnic heritage or national origin, or to alcohol, drugs or drug paraphernalia."   For example, a retired wine merchant was denied his request for VINO.   Mike Udink is pissed because he can't use his family name. It's a Dutch name, not uncommon in Holland, where his father came from. He's had UDINK1, UDINK2 AND UDINK3 for years, but when his son applied for UDINK4, not only was he turned down, but the state then informed Mike that he had to surrender his plates.   Since then, he's received the royal runaround. (Imagine - getting the runaround from a state agency!) He was first told that his plates were sexually suggestive, since the "U" can also mean "You." To which he replied, "So?"   When he pressed that issue, he was next told that it can be a "racial slur," especially offensive to Vietnamese.   Hmmm. So there goes my plan to apply for VITTU, a Finnish word roughly approximating the "F-word."   But telling a guy that he can't use his family name?   As Mike Udink (sorry if I offended any Vietnamese readers by using the word) pointed out, if the President of the United States were to retire to Oregon, they wouldn't let him have BUSH.   *********** Interesting that Columbia University, which like my esteeemed alma mater, Yale, does not offer ROTC, made the grandstand play of allowing the president of Iran to address an on-campus gathering.   The same president of Iran who denies the existence of the Holocaust and vows to destroy Israel. The same president who has no problem with killing homosexuals.   Say, killing homosexuals?   But wait - didn't the president of Columbia refuse to allow ROTC on campus (despite a 2-1 vote by students in its favor) because of the military's discrimination against homosexuals?   *********** Georgia Tech's George Morris, Virginia's Joe Palumbo, North Carolina's Harris Barton are members of the College Football hall of Fame, and now they've been joined by nine others as members of something called the "2007 ACC Football Championship Game Legends Class.} Others include Duke's Clarkston Hines, Florida State's LeRoy Butler, Boston College's Pete Mitchell, Clemson's Jerry Butler, NC State's Dennis Byrd, Maryland's Dick Shiner; Miami's Jim Kelly, and Virginia Tech's Antonio Freeman.   Uh... Boston College's Pete Mitchell? Miami's Jim Kelly? Virginia Tech's Antonio Freeman?   Am I missing something? Didn't BC, Miami and VT join the ACC long after those guys had moved on?   So how TF can guys who never played in an ACC conference game be on any kind of all-time ACC team, or whatever it's called?   *********** I wasn't sure a few weeks ago what Kentucky coach Rich Brooks meant when he wrote that if they could get by Louisville they had a chance to be pretty good. Anybody who has seen them play the last two weeks, against Louisville and then against Arkansas, knows that the Wildcats have a lot of playmakers. And - write this down, Heisman voters - for my money, no quarterback in the country is having a batter year or meaning more to his team's success than Andre Woodson.   *********** MIchigan's Mike hart has carried the ball bearly 900 times wihout a fumble.   Meanwhile, Penn State's Austin Scott, who fumbled at a key point in the Lions' game against Michigan, has has four lost fumbles in 57 carries.   Asked analyst Paul McGuire about someone who fumbles that much, "What do you tell a guy?"   That's easy, I could have told him.   "Go sit down."   *********** No matter how you feel about Notre Dame, you can't enjoy NBC's halftime show, which consists entirely of talk about the NFL.   *********** They continued an on-air telephone interview with Rutgers' Greg Schiano, while in the background, Syracuse returned a kickoff for a touchdown.   *********** Lou Holtz is so pathetic with these phony-ass "pep talks." He manages to dredge up every stale joke and motivational cliche he's ever used, form back in the days when he really was an entertaining speaker, as he shows us what he would say if he were coaching one of the teams in action that day.   Saturday, he offered up the speech that he'd give to Penn State before their game with Michigan.   He wound up by saying, "Michigan is arrogant... they think they never make mistakes... Well, they made a mistake when they scheduled Penn State!"   I could just see some bright Penn State kid listening to a coach try that line on the team, and put up his hand ans sau, "Coach, aren't they in our conference? I mean, don't they have to play us?"   *********** I looked out at all the people on the fields across the street from our house, and thought, "What the hell kind of Americans have nothing better to do on a beautiful fall Saturday than watch little kids play soccer?"   *********** A friend wrote...Tough one Friday night. Ran all over them again. One fumble.. And it came with 4 min. to go and us up 19-13. They ended up scoring to go up 20-19. We got the ball back with just under a minute to go. Marched down to the 8 yard line and called our last t.o. with 0.7 on the clock. Missed a field goal that would have won. My heart hurts for these guys. They played so hard and we ran the ball well. Both A and B backs had 158 and 160 yards apiece. C back had 64. QB had 37. Tough one to lose. But I thought the kids played spectacular football.   I saw the score in the paper and hurt for your kids. Yet it has to be encouraging for them to have played so well, even though they lost.  It illustrates for them the fact that the game of football is merciless and unforgiving, and is quick to punich anything short of perfection.   Winning football is mostly a matter of discovering potential mistakes and correcting them. Hayden Fry, great coach at Iowa, called it "Plowing up snakes and killing them." HW   *********** Coach, I forgot to tell you that we tried Art West 6G pass (From the newsletter) and we did complete to the C back for 10 yards. The A back was wide Open in the middle and our QB just didn't see him.   Thanks for the newsletter, good as always! Our Freshmen won tonight 38-20. It was their first win ever at any level! Those kids were excited and we ran three plays all night! 88 SP, 47 C, 2 Wedge!   Mike Benton, Colfax, Illinois   *********** South Mecklenburg of Charlotte made it four in a row and moved to 4-1 with a last-second 10-7 win over East Mecklenburg. Held scoreless until the fourth quarter, South Meck finally scored on a 29-yard pass from Jey Yokeley to Donte Williams, and then sealed the deal on Preston Couch's 38-yard field goal as time ran out. Yokeley was 7 for 9 for 76 yards on the fourth quarter, and has now completed 22 of 28 for the season. South Meck;s only loss was in overtime to highly-rated Charlotte Catholic in the season opener.   *********** Not to say that Donovan McNabb may not be right about fans holding black quarterback's to a higher standard than their white counterparts, but... would Chicago fans be any tougher on Rex Grossman, or New Orleans fans be any more upset with Drew Brees if they were black?   Meantime, McNabb went out and completed 21 of 36 for 384 yards and 4 TDs. That's almost good enoough to get the Philly fans off a guy's ass.   Sad to think that he had the career day wearing those throw-up (sorry - throwback) uniforms. Now the Philly fans will want the Iggles to wear those godawful things every Sunday.   All football programs are invited to participate in the Black Lion Award program. The Black Lion Award is intended to go to the player on your team "Who best exemplifies the character of Don Holleder (see below): leadership, courage, devotion to duty, self sacrifice, and - above all - an unselfish concern for the team ahead of himself." The Black Lion Award provides your winner with a personalized certificate and a Black Lions patch, like the one worn at left by Army's 2005 Black Lion, Scott Wesley, and at right by Army's 2006 Black Lion, Mike Viti. There is no cost to you to participate as a Black Lion Award team. FOR MORE INFORMATION   ALL NEW! CST's Feature Story on the Black Lion Award BECOME A BLACK LION TEAM GIVE THE BLACK LION AWARD TO ONE OF YOUR PLAYERS! Will Sullivan, Army's 2004 Black Lion wore his patch (awarded to all winners) in the Army-Navy game (FOR MORE INFO) The Black Lion certificate is awarded to all winners   Take a look at this, beautifully done by Derek Wade, of Sumner, Washington --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Yy6iA_6skQ

Wonder What the Vegas Mob Thinks About Bill (The Fixer) Belichick! (See"NEWS") A Lesson By Warren Buffett in Dealing With Rejection! (See"NEWS") "Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold. For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it." (Proverbs, Chapter 8, Verses 10-11)   September 21, 2007 -   "The people to fear are not those who disagree with you, but those who disagree with you and are too cowardly to let you know." Napoleon Bonaparte ALL NEW! CST's Feature Story on the Black Lion Award   Back in the spring, following the Chicago clinic, I took part in a "Ride-along" with a team of plainclothes Chicago policemen. Click on the "Chicago Police" seal to read more about it and see some exclusive photos, shown only on "News You Can Use"     *********** I recently launched a free e-mail newsletter, aimed specifically at those of you who love and respect the game the way it's seldom seen on TV these days, and still believe that it's possible to play football other than the way the NFL plays it. The third issue is due out next week. To get on the mailing list, e-mail me your name, location and e-mail address at: oldschoolfootball@mac.com (your information will never be given to anyone else)   *********** You have GOT to see what Kansas State has done to note their affiliation with the Black Lion Award!   http://inside.kstatesports.com/football/blacklions/   *********** From "NFL Stands Pat" - A Wall Street Journal editorial on the NFL's patty-cake treatment of Belichick...   Mmmmm. Several ways to look at this decision. We're the Wall Street Journal, so economics first. Assume the Belichick-led Pats go on to the Super Bowl. Will the Pats' fanatic fans call the half-million (Belichick's fine) and first-round pick too high a price? Nah. They'll write off.   Then there's the liberal notion of "distributive justice," attributed to the late Harvard prof and likely Pats' fan John Rawls. The Lions' Charles Rogers, the Rams' Fakhir Brown and even the Pats' Rodney Harrison were suspended four games for violating the league's substance abuse rules. It's a long list. If the sauce for these geese is suspension, why not for a big gander like Bill Belichick?   Finally, there's the question on Brian Dawkins' mind (Dawkins, reflecting on the Pats' "astonishingly good half-time changes" in the 2004 Super Bowl, said he was "bothered" by doubts about the legitimacy of the Pat's three-point win over his Eagles- HW) or any other NFL player's. You train and practice like a maniac to compete in this game, risk life and limb to play it for a shot at the ring, and then discover that the Pats are winning because they've lifted your coaches' signals.   It's called cheating. It's why the drug-enhanced performance scandals are so awful.. The cheaters win, the straight guys lose. Goodell needs to re-level his playing field. Sit Belichick. Minimum four games.   *********** Dad &endash; you knew I'd have to weigh in on the Haka debate!  Basically I agree that the potential for it to be misused is great.  It's not meant to be a taunt &endash; I know Hawaii has done post-game Hakas which the All Blacks, to my knowledge, don't do.  Also "Haka" refers to a Maori dance.  Most of the other Polynesian nations have war dances or war cries which aren't technically Hakas.  I do, however, believe they're legitimate and rooted in Polynesian tradition.  Hawaii had 17 Polynesian players in June Jones' first year.  This year, 79 or 105 are Polynesian.  I know that Jones wants to push the cultural traditions hard, which certainly doesn't hurt when it comes to recruiting Islander kids.  Love, Ed - Melbourne, Australia   This is from a Rugby World Cup News service:   New Zealand have long been famous for performing their pre-match haka, but they're not the only ones with an ancient war dance to get the blood pumping and crowds roaring.  Fiji, Samoa and Tonga all have their own rituals derived from their warrior ancestry.   Fiji - cibi   Fiji's war dance, the cibi (pronounced thimbi), has been performed on the rugby pitch since their first tour of New Zealand in 1939. The cibi is believed to be derived from a Bauan war cry called cibi ni I valu.  When returning from battle victorious, warriors would sing the cibi, brandishing their weapons and flying flags, one for each enemy slain.  Fiji fly half Nicky Little believes the cibi continues to fire up the team: "It's a tribal psych-up for war. I think it makes a few people crazy," he said.   Samoa &endash; siva tau   The Samoan war dance is the siva tau, first composed for RWC 1991.  For the Samoa captain Semo Sititi, the siva sau honours his country's history and represents the team as warriors ready to fight: "It's to fire us up, to show that we're there ready to battle, not just to go through the motions," he said.   Tonga &endash; sipi tau   Tonga's sipi tau is considered by some to be the most aggressive of the war dances as the players advance toward their opponents.  It was an intense scene at RWC 2003 when Tonga and New Zealand faced off with simultaneous war dances.   The sipi tau is a version of the Tongan kailao war dance. The kailao is typically without words, usually accompanied by drums. However, the Tongan team's sipi tau includes promises to "crunch fierce hearts".   New Zealand &endash; haka   New Zealand's haka is probably the best known of the war dances and was first performed by the New Zealand Native team in an overseas representative match on the 1888-89 tour of Britain.  Haka is a common name for a Maori war dance, which exists in many different forms. The All Blacks brought the Ka Mate haka to the world stage, but since 2006 have started performing a new ceremonial haka, the Kapa O Panga.  The Ka Mate haka is a story about pursuit and escape, and fundamentally survival. It is said to have been composed in the 1800s by warrior chief Te Rauparaha.  The words of the Ka Mate refer to the highs and lows faced in battle, the lengths one will go to in order to survive; in Te Rauparaha's case, going against custom and pride by hiding in a pit beneath the skirts of a woman.  The new Kapa O Panga haka has been received with some controversy, with the final throat-slitting gesture considered by some an excessive show of aggression, although according to the Kapa O Pango composer Derek Lardelli, it's simply an action intended to draw energy through the vital organs and release the warrior into battle.   Opinions vary as to whether the opposing side should face the war dance as a sign of respect.   Eyebrows were raised after New Zealand's opening match at RWC 2007 when the Italians turned their backs to the haka, but New Zealand hooker Anton Oliver believes it's a personal choice: "You get more respect from us if you do (face it)," he said. "But I don't think any less of the Italians in their decision to do it (huddle away from the haka)."   And when Tonga and Samoa meet, there'll be no turned backs after Samoa captain Semo Sititi spelled out his views: "You should face it. When we play Tonga we will be facing them."   Ed Wyatt comes in frequent contact with rugby - and the Haka - through his job as a sports reporter in Australia, a rugby hotbed.   *********** A reader sent in this, from SI.com, in Dr Z NFL Mailbag - Friday September 14, 2007   Chris of Baton Rouge, noting the rise of the Spread Option in college, with the running quarterback, wonders if this might be on its way to the NFL. It's funny, I had a talk with Bill Parcells the other day and he brought up the same thing. He said it's definitely on the way. Not only that, according to the coach, but you're seeing things that seem to take in the old single-wing principles.   And to Coach Parcells, I would say, "Well, duh.  Where've you been?" HW   *********** Hugh, I think you are right that more is coming on The Bill (as we call him in Boston). My college roommate lives in Santa Monica and frequents Sonny McLean's, a Red Sox bar. He bumped into a guy there who claims to have a friend in the commissioner's office, who let on that Roger Goodell is still looking at allegations the Pats have been tooling with radio frequencies they're not allowed to use - possibly jamming the sideline-to-QB channel, or more likely, eavesdropping.   This was no surprise to me - this had been rumored along with the sideline taping. I'm sure you've seen the old headset trick of one side claiming their headsets don't work, so the other staff has to take them off. This would be a big step up from that.   If it's true, what a f***ing jerk.   When I heard complaints that the Iggles Super Bowl may have been fixed, I figured they couldn't have translated the defensive signals on the fly. That raised two possibilities:   -The Pats beat Philly early on the season before, they may have taped it then as part of building up a stock of teams' intellectual property, as it were.   -The Pats got the signals or tape from someone else. Not saying everybody does it, but maybe another coach made a devil's deal with Belichick to trade information.   Goodell's got a big one on his hands. Criminal players come and go and never reform. This is a fixing scandal. If it goes that deep, sounds like a lifetime ban for Bill and suspensions for his assistants and anyone else involved.   Hell, it could be a chink in the credibility of Big Football. I know how sad you'd be if that happened.   Christopher Anderson, Palo Alto, California (Belichick is a fixer, pure and simple. The sooner people realize that, the sooner they'll realize what this is doing to Big Football. The NFL doesn't like to admit it, but backbone of its audience is gambling. Serious money is bet on the NFL every Sunday. Watch how interest in the game declines if gamblers don't think they are playing on an even field. I have a feeling some guys in Vegas might be doing a little, uh, "historical research," checking back into those times that the Pats beat the spread and cost them millions. On second thought - maybe the guys in Vegas were behind all this. Wonder if  Roger the Dodger ever thought about that. HW)   *********** Hey Coach, Just wanted to let you know we won our first game 40-0 this past Saturday. It is my third year with your system, but my first year with this team. This team lost last year 13-12 to the same team we faced this past Saturday. Your system has helped are kids gain confidence in themselves and as a team. This week we will face another team they lost to last year, I will let you know what happens. Kevin Rivas, Montebello Indians Jr. Midgets, Montebello, California   *********** Every so often I will hear from a coach who's beating himself up because his offense didn't perform up to his standards and his team just lost, and I have to remind him that there is more to winning and losing games than just offense. Winning football truly is a three-legged stool of offense, defense, and the kicking game. It takes more than just offense, or just defense, or just the kicking game to win.  Don James used to say that you have to be better in all three areas to be reasonably sure of winning, and to be better in two out of the three to have any chance of winning. If you are beaten in two of the three areas, you are almost sure to lose.   *********** I continue to read your news every Tuesday and Friday even though I don't write much anymore. I am watching the Miami-Texas A&M game tonight and I saw something that reminded me of some of your past opinions on helmets and pads. An Aggie player's helmet came off on a play and the camera focused on him as he put it back on. He held it by the face mask with one hand and slipped it over his head, where it came to rest easy as pie. Now, it's been a long, long time since I wore a football helmet, but my memory is that I had to put my fingers into the earholes and pry the helmet apart in order to get it over my head and ears. It was definitely a two-handed operation. And it was tight. Even without the chinstrap buckled, it would not likely have come off very easily. Between college football and the NFL, there is this phenomenon of loose-fitting helmets that seem to pop off a few times each game, wide receivers wearing bicycle shorts instead of football pants, pants that don't extend over the knee, pads that are sized for youth footballers and no pads in places where I'm pretty sure I used to wear pads. I guess my question is why don't coaches, trainers, equipment managers, or team physicians step in and do something about this obvious safety problem? It's obvious the NCAA and the NFL won't, but you would think the teams would want to protect their investments and keep them as safe and free of injury as possible. Not to mention it just looks goofy. I don't get it.   Alan Goodwin, Warwick, Rhode Island (As for the overlooking of safety equipment... I'd like to see OSHA take a look at the loose-fitting helmets and lack of knee pads. You'd like to think that NFL owners are smart enough businessmen to want to protect their investments.   But the reality is that they are irrational, as evidenced by the way the blow millions on scouting departments who can't identify talent, coaches who can't coach, and players who can't play. HW)   *********** Hi Coach, Had to write after reading what took place at The State University of New Jersey. I was at the Boston College -Wake Forest game with my 11yr. old son. Seated behind us are 3 cadets from West Point back in town on break. I mentioned Mike Viti and the eyes light up like kids on Xmas morning. We talk football and their future till half, as they leave we shake hands and I wish them well and thank them. A few minutes go by and my son asks why I thanked them. A short discussion on sacrifice and dedication takes place. 'Are they coming back' he asks . I totally miss where he is going with the Question and reply I sure hope they all come back. 'No are they coming back for the 2nd. half because I want to thank them too'   Jay Zackular, North Reading, Massachusetts (What a shame that every boy in American doesn't have a dad like that to explain things like that to him. HW)   ***********  Coach - I stated almost two years ago, that Weis was the biggest fraud to come down the Turnpike in a long,long time, That SOB   has lived off the Parcells Belichick protégé B.S. since Day  1,  This guy is a fraud  along the same Lines of Paul Hackett (  The guys claim to fame is he ran one storied College Program into the ground Pitt and almost ran another USC, until USC got smart quick pulled the plug on him just in time of destruction beyond repair, ) Dan Henning   who decimated B.C and the Clown at Cuse , all of   NFL   "geniuses" &  "gurus" !!!!   Coach - did you read  on MSNBS , Weis made those poor bastards go full out practice on Sunday, typical  John Wayne  inexperience High School Coach B**LL S**ht,  Weis should get a copy of the Bill Walsh Book "Black Magic" when he returned to Stanford for his second tour, During Spring Practice, Walsh's asst. coaches were on the practice field hootin and hollerin, Walsh stopped practice, yelled back at the Coaches , and Told them to shut the Bleep up and TEACH !!! TEACH !!!, Not only does this SOB need to eat some humble pie, but if that  is not a Bush league move I don't know what one is ?   ND desperately needs   a Barry Alvarez, Terry Donohue,  Rich Brooks, Jim Young, Mike Price  type  a  top flight highly successful College coach, with a Boat load of College coaching experience, that can turn this thing around  in   5 year period.  - John Muckian , Lynn , Massachusetts   *********** Coach, I had the opportunity to watch ------- High School, which runs the Double-Wing. ----- ----- is the head coach. They beat a team 7-0 in a game that featured a version of Navy's Triple Option and the Double Wing. I'm only emailing you because it was very frustrating to watch. I can't help to think back to the first Wyatt Clinic that I attended and a coach told me that if I was not running Super Power than I missed the entire purpose of the offense. I sat in the stands and saw about 4 Super Power's in 4 quarters of play. The interesting thing: ------ ran only powers and you will never guess who was making the tackles - the Cornerback on the side the power was going to.   The most frustrating part of the night, was talking to one of my players who played for me as my C-Back, and now plays for Coach ------- : they hardly ever practice Super Power. The player was a great C-Back for me; he said they do things a bit different, but use all the same terms. I've spoken to Coach a couple of times over the years and even spoke to him at the clinic, but I got the impression that I was just a successful youth coach to him. So I do not correspond with him. I've watched them play twice, and was not impressed at all. They have no passing game, they attempted 4 Red-Reds and they were terrible, by the 4th second after the ball was snapped the QB was just coming out of his roll out and could barely get the pass off.   (The writer is a youth coach whose teams I have occasionally used to demonstrate to coaches - yes, even high school coaches - a well-run Double-Wing. This is not to say that all youth coaches are terrific football coaches, but neither are all high school coaches. And I have yet to meet the really good high school coach who looked down his nose at youth coaches. HW)   *********** Now there is a Double wing Coaches name if I ever heard one. I found it on your page on 9-19-07. The name is from Fort Worth TX, Coach BEN RUSHING!   Anyone calling your name you could always Answer, "YES!"   I just found that funny and interesting   Larry Harrison, Atlanta   He's not a coach yet, but it's a great Double Wing name! I also have sold materials to a youth coach whose address is 1188 Long Run Road! HW   *********** Notre Dame has become to comedy writers what O.J. Simpson is to cable TV news shows. Examples:   *********** From http://www.thebrushback.com   WASHINGTON, DC--A new videotape released by terrorist leader Osama Bin Laden on Monday included, among other things, a brief diatribe mocking Notre Dame's 0-3 start to the season. The comments were the latest in an avalanche of criticism the Irish have endured in the past week.       "And now I would like to briefly touch upon the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team," Bin Laden said in the grainy video. "The supposed mighty Christian warriors have been exposed as worthless dogs. It is apparent that the ridiculous media hype surrounding these snakes was unfounded. Perhaps they will win three games this season so they can be ranked number one in next season's preseason poll. Also, has Jimmy Clausen ever played football before?"   *********** By Michael Rosenberg - msn.foxsports.com -Weis defenders say Tyrone Willingham deserves most of the blame for the depleted roster, because Willingham's recruiting nosedived.   OK, fine.   Does Willingham get credit for bringing in Brady Quinn?   *********** Also by Michael Rosenberg - Notre Dame gave him a 10-year contract after he almost beat USC his first year. (I wonder ... what do you get for actually beating USC? Do they name the stadium after you?)   *********** It's not a football story, but it has a moral: Don't let rejection defeat you. Suck it up. Get up off the mat. Find another way. Turn lemons into lemonade.   Warren Buffett, of Omaha, Nebraska, is now one of the world's richest men. But in 1950, he was down. He'd been rejected.   After graduating from the University of Nebraska, he'd applied to Harvard Business school and been rejected.   It was August, well after the deadline for applying to Columbia University's business school, when Mr. Buffett wrote to Columbia Professor David L. Dodd, whom he knew only as the author of a well-known textbook.   "Dear Professor Dodd," he wrote, "I thought you were dead, but now that I know that you're alive, I'd like to come study with you."   "And he admitted me to Columbia!" Mr. Buffett recalled in an interview years later. "I would not be who I am today without David Dodd. If in response to my letter he'd said, 'Sorry, its too late,' I'd never be where I am."   Professor Dodd must have been impressed by Mr. Buffett, the student, because after Mr. Buffett returned to Nebraska and formed an investment partnership, Professor Dodd invested some of his own money for himself and his daughter.   Mr. Buffett's investment savvy made him a wealthy man. Last year, he donated $37 billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (he and Bill Gates enjoy playing bridge together).   But countless others who invested with him and trusted in his wisdom grew wealthy, too.   One of them was Professor Dodd. Professor Dodd is now gone, but his daughter, Barbara Dodd Anderson, just left $128 million to her prep school The George School, a private Quaker school in Newtown, Pennsylvania. It is believed to be the largest single donation ever made to an independent high school.   And all because Harvard rejected Warren Buffett.   "Harvard did me a big favor by turning me down," Mr. Buffett said. "But I haven't made any contributions to them in thanks for that."   *********** Another great article about Army's Black Lion...   FIELD GENERAL - By LENN ROBBINS, in the New York Post   September 19, 2007 -- ARMY senior fullback Mike Viti knows he has a full plate. In fact, he was so concerned about taking on too much responsibility, he sought out the counsel of a West Point great, Pete Dawkins.   Dawkins, a former Heisman Trophy winner and Rhodes Scholar, told Viti he should try to be all he can be. Mission accomplished.   Viti is a team captain and one of just four regimental commanders at West Point. He told The Post because of football practices, games and travel, his regimental commander duties (he oversees eight companies and two battalions) and an 18-credit course load ("It's the first time I haven't taken at least 20 credits,'' Viti said), he's getting about four hours of sleep per night.   The heavy workload hasn't affected Viti's play. He has scored a touchdown in each of the past two games for Army (1-2), including a 3-yard run for a TD in Saturday's 21-10 loss to Wake Forest.   Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of Viti's success is that he wasn't born into a military household and initially didn't see himself attending a service academy, much less become one of its leaders.   Both of his grandfathers fought in the Korean War, but his dad didn't serve. Viti, from Berwick, Pa., was considering Villanova and Penn State. Then came the day that changed the world, certainly Viti's: Sept. 11, 2001.   "I was in my world history class in high school my sophomore year and one of the teachers walked in and said there had been an accident,'' Viti said. "I remember watching the second plane go into the tower and you knew then it was no accident.   "Then we heard about the plane hitting the Pentagon and the one that went down in Pennsylvania. I felt like my home was in the center of a triangle - New York, Washington and Shanksville. By the end of my junior year I made an unofficial visit to West Point and I knew then that this was the only place for me.''   The American public has become all too familiar with the Triangle of Death, the region outside of Baghdad that has become the horrific area where so many servicemen have lost their lives or been injured. Viti knows he has committed to a life of service, and he has no reservations.   lenn.robbins@nypost.com   *********** Hugh, Do you remember Dave McNally, a 60's-era Baltimore pitcher?   His grandson Bo is starting at safety for Stanford. The kid can play. Christopher Anderson, Palo Alto, California   Dave McNally was from Billings, Montana. He was a great left-handed pitcher for the Orioles, and he worked in the off-season for the National Brewing Company, for whom I worked from 1966-1969. National owned the Orioles, and Dave was a management trainee.   We got drunk together one night, making the rounds of Baltimore taverns. Try to imagine a modern-day baseball player (a) working in the off season and (b) making the rounds of taverns with a bunch of beer salesmen.   He was suffering from an elbow problem at the time and told me it hurt to pick up a beer glass.  But he managed that night.  And his elbow did get better.   He later became an automobile dealer in Billings, and, sadly, died a few years ago.   He was a great guy, and a major part of the Orioles' dynasty - Brooks and Frank Robinson, Boog Powell, etc.   Between the Orioles and the Colts, those were great times to live in Baltimore.  The Irsays had not yet arrived.   *********** From scrappleface.com:   "Asked if he was alarmed by the incident, Mr. Kerry, a professional Vietnam veteran, said, 'After all the action I saw in 'Nam, a little scuffle like this don't faze me, bro.'"   *********** After Kentucky's win over Louisville, thousands of jubilant Wildcat fans stormed the field to celebrate.   Uh-oh. A couple of days later, the SEC fined Kentucky $25,000 for allowing the fans on the field.   I have a feeling that if the University athletic department were to call for donations to pay the fine, they'd have the money in, oh, 15 minutes or so.   *********** Speaking of taking up collections, Demetrius Jones needs tuition money.   You may remember that Jones was Notre Dame's starting quarterback in the opener against Georgia Tech.   You may also remember that the Sun Coach, Charlie Weis, made a HUGE production over the naming of his starting quarterback.   Later, after Jones started the G-T game, Weis let on that it was only because Jimmy-boy Clausen had had surgery and wasn't ready. Otherwise, it was implied, Clausen was the Boy.   Stung because he said he'd had no idea that he hadn't won the job fair and square, Jones jumped ship, and transferred to Northern Illinois.   Now, Notre Dame is refusing to release him from his scholarship, which means that Northern Illinois can't scholarship him.   So, while Jones may transfer, and he may play next year for Northern Illinois, he will have to pay his way there for the rest of this school year.   I don't want to say that Notre Dame is making itself look petty here, but any school that can pay Charlie Weis $4 a year ought to be able not only to release a kid who appears to have been dealt with duplicitously, but even throw in a little severance money - enough to pay his tuition at Northern Illinois.   Note to Jimmy Clausen: As I write this, I am watching a high school game on ESPNU, and I'll be damned if Sherman Oaks Notre Dame's QB hasn't committed to Notre Dame. Huh? What's going on here? I thought you were the Notre Dame quarterback of the future!   *********** My grandson, Wyatt Love, lives in Durham, North Carolina, and plays tight end and linebacker for his school's JV team. He said it was funny last week preparing for  Enloe High of Raleigh, because Enloe runs the Double Wing. A lot of his teammates recognized it right away from their days at Rogers-Herr Middle School, where their coach was noted Durham Double-Winger Dave Potter, and they were able to put together a decent scout team.  As it turned out, Jordan's JV's lost big to Enloe.  When I said to Wyatt, "I figured you might have trouble stopping them," he said, "We had trouble stopping our own scout team!"   *********** For a great article by Tony Guadagnoli on three legendary sports stadia - The Yale Bowl, Harvard Stadium, and Franklin Field, and the role they played in the growth of our game http://sports.espn.go.com/travel/news/story?id=3016019&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab2pos2   For example - who knew that Harvard Stadium played a major role in the development of the forward pass? Following the 1904-1905 seasons, in which 39 players were killed and another 349 seriously injured, college presidents came under pressure from President Theodore Roosevelt to make the game safer. One proposal by Walter Camp, called the father of American football because his rules were responsible for changing rugby into the game we play today, called for making football safer by opening up play - widening the field by another 40 yards. Unfortunately for his proposal, Harvard's was one of the most influential of college presidents, and Harvard Stadium, the first modern college facility, was already built. Harvard Stadium, been designed around the dimensions of the field size that's still in use today, and, because it was all concrete, there was no possibility of widening it. So instead of widening the playing field, the rulesmakers began to open up the game by slowly but surely accommodating the forward pass.   All football programs are invited to participate in the Black Lion Award program. The Black Lion Award is intended to go to the player on your team "Who best exemplifies the character of Don Holleder (see below): leadership, courage, devotion to duty, self sacrifice, and - above all - an unselfish concern for the team ahead of himself." The Black Lion Award provides your winner with a personalized certificate and a Black Lions patch, like the one worn at left by Army's 2005 Black Lion, Scott Wesley, and at right by Army's 2006 Black Lion, Mike Viti. There is no cost to you to participate as a Black Lion Award team. FOR MORE INFORMATION   ALL NEW! CST's Feature Story on the Black Lion Award BECOME A BLACK LION TEAM GIVE THE BLACK LION AWARD TO ONE OF YOUR PLAYERS! Will Sullivan, Army's 2004 Black Lion wore his patch (awarded to all winners) in the Army-Navy game (FOR MORE INFO) The Black Lion certificate is awarded to all winners   Take a look at this, beautifully done by Derek Wade, of Sumner, Washington --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Yy6iA_6skQ

I Don't Think the NFL is Done With Billy Belichick Yet! (See"NEWS") Lots and Lots of Laughs at Charlie Weis' Expense! (See"NEWS") "Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold. For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it." (Proverbs, Chapter 8, Verses 10-11)   September 18, 2007 -   "Men are moved by two levers only: fear and self interest." Napoleon Bonaparte   ALL NEW! CST's Feature Story on the Black Lion Award   Back in the spring, following the Chicago clinic, I took part in a "Ride-along" with a team of plainclothes Chicago policemen. Click on the "Chicago Police" seal to read more about it and see some exclusive photos, shown only on "News You Can Use"     *********** I recently launched a free e-mail newsletter, aimed specifically at those of you who love and respect the game the way it's seldom seen on TV these days, and still believe that it's possible to play football other than the way the NFL plays it. The third issue is due out next week. To get on the mailing list, e-mail me your name, location and e-mail address at: oldschoolfootball@mac.com (your information will never be given to anyone else)   *********** You have GOT to see what Kansas State has done to note their affiliation with the Black Lion Award!   http://inside.kstatesports.com/football/blacklions/   *********** It was a great football Saturday for me - Duke ended a 22-game losing streak, Kentucky won in a last-minute thriller, Oregon won convincingly, and Kansas State won big. And Notre Dame lost. Big.   Just about the only bummer was Washington's loss to Ohio State. The Huskies just aren't there yet. But Tyrone Willingham is doing a great job of getting them there. He's no Charlie Weis, of course - a fact for which all Washington fans are grateful.   *********** LATE MONDAY NIGHT FINAL - Ahead 24-17 Friday with 1:37 left in the third quarter, South Mecklenburg High of Charlotte was chased off the field by a lightning storm, and had to wait until Monday night to finish the job,   The final was South Meck 36, Harding 23, as South Meck made it 3-1 on the season, the only loss coming on double overtime to pwoerful Charlotte Catholic in the season opener. The three-game winning streak is the school's first in 15 years, and the three wins equal the total number of wins South Meck's seniors had experienced in their first three years of high school.   South Mecklenburg had 561 yards total offense, with 415 yards on the ground. Junior Tim Palmer carried 16 times for 180 yards. In four games, the Sabres have rushed for 1600 yards.   Friday night, the Sabres open league play against East Mecklenburg, also 3-1.   And so at 1:15 Eastern Time, I said my good-byes to coach James Martin, who with a short week ahead of him was planning on an all-nighter looking at video.   *********** Good Morning Hugh-- We are excited this morning - we beat Lisbon, their first loss in two years, a run that spanned 24 games. The score 40-13 and the DW was kicking on all cylinders. A very nice win for us and the program. I will not bore you with details becasue we only run the basic stuff, but all went well on Friday night. We continue to throw a TD pass per game as teams insist on crowding the line of scrimmage with ten and eleven defenders. We probably should throw more. We are currently 3-0. not bad for a team that was picked to finish in the bottom half in the pre-season poll. Jack Tourtillotte, Boothbay Harbor, Maine   *********** Our league does not allow filming games to scout, because they say that it is a federal offense to film a child that is not yours.   this is ridiculous that a league would take this position.  Trust me when I say, the feds have enough work without having to confiscate every youth scout tape because it violates "federal law".   I am sure we can both agree that the spirit of the law is intended to prosecute pedophiles and not football coaches.   Give me the location of this coach and I will get him phone numbers of a few people that can help his league interpret the law correctly, i.e. the United States Attorney's Office.      John A. Torres, Special Agent in Charge, Los Angeles Field Division, ATF   *********** Coach, When I read your comments about a paper's football predications, I thought about the picks that are run each Friday in the Boston Globe. The school sports editor makes picks on about five or so games. Some are the big games of the week; others appear to be randomly selected. Along with each pick are a few comments that are usually related more to pop culture, current events or quirky, non-football things about the communities the schools are located in than any sort of analysis of how the teams match up.   If you've read the picks for more than a few weeks, it's fairly obvious the writer doesn't take them seriously and they're not to be taken seriously by the readers. They seem to be more for entertainment or comic relief than serious, informed predictions. It was also obvious the writer was "taking a dive" on some picks for whatever reason.   For example, a few years ago, there was a team that had set the state record for longest winning streak. Every week, regardless of the opponent, he picked that team to lose. It could have been playing a team with an equally long losing streak and he still picked the "dynasty" to lose. Some people suggested the reason he did this was that when the team's winning streak finally ended, he could say he predicted it.   Naturally, some people got upset about his picks. People on various internet forums said he should find another line of work. I talked to one AD whose team was scheduled to play the team with the winning streak that Friday and he was angry that the writer picked his school's team (which was coming off a winless season the year before) to win. I told him that the picks were not meant to be taken seriously and he shouldn't worry about it. His reply: "You just know the other coach has that on his bulletin board."   I have two different, opposing thoughts on this. One one hand, these picks are not meant to be taken seriously and that should be obvious, at least after one reads them for a few weeks. If somebody is getting all bent out of shape about them, the joke is on them.   On the other hand, if the readers do take the picks seriously maybe the writer has an obligation to do the same.   If you were the coach of a younger, struggling team playing one of the better teams in your area and a newspaper guy picked your team to pull off the upset in a similar picks column (one that was not to be taken seriously), would it bother you that he gave the other team some bulletin board material?   Steve Tobey, Malden, Massachusetts (I suppose that the only thing to do is to post - prominently - some  sort of disclaimer. ("The following picks are intended to be for the readers' amusement, and not meant in any way to reflect an intelligent, reasoned assessment of the differences between the competing teams."HW)   *********** Dan Ferrigno, receiver coach at Cal, has a potential Heisman candidate on his hands in DeSean Jackson, whose great moves and 4.3 speed were shown off to a national TV audience against Tennessee. Ferrigno does acknowledge, though, that Jackson will probably need to put on a little more weight in order to play in the NFL.   It's about his blocking. "He'll try," Ferrigno said. "He's not scared."   It's just that now, when he has to crack back on a linebacker, it looks like "a water balloon hitting a battleship."   *********** Ken Goe, writing in the Portland Oregonian, pokes fun at the NCAA for its pretentious (and overly wordy) new names for D-IA and D-IAA, suggesting that if they'd just asked him, he could have provided a couple of better names for the former D-IA: "Seat License Division," "We Pay Our Coach More Than the Governor Division," and "Never Seen the Inside of a Classroom Division.   *********** From a letter to the editor of the HAYS DAILY NEWS signed by R. W. Yeager     Norton, Kansas   We need to show more sympathy for these people. They travel miles in the heat, they risk their lives crossing a border, they don't get paid enough wages,  they do jobs that others won't do or are  afraid to do, they live in crow ded conditions among a people who speak a  different language,  they rarely see their families, and they face  adversity all day every day. I'm not talking about illegal Mexicans, I'm talking about our troops. Doesn't it seem strange that the Democrats are willing to lavish all kinds of social benefits on illegals, but don't support our troops and are  now threatening to defund them?   *********** Coach Wyatt, Thanks for posting the story on Coach Ennis this morning. He gave a youth coach a chance to be part of a great program, I'll always be blessed by that. In my interview with him I expected some in-depth questions about x's and o's. To me surprise, football was not discussed that day. He wanted to know me as a person and a father. He wanted to know about my character and my faith and how I related to young people. I learned a lot from "Coach", on and off the field. He will be missed.   Thanks again Hugh,   Glade Hall, Seattle, Washington   *********** Coach, I just wanted to thank you for sending me the scramble blocking video clip as well as presenting it at your clinic two years ago. I put scramble blocking in this season and it is just amazing. It looks beautiful. The defense really does not know what to do. They just put their hands down and go run backwards. My linemen told me after our game Saturday that the defense was telling them to "take it easy" when we scramble blocked. As for last Saturday, despite my linemen being tackled (I am surprised my center didn't have his leg broken) we pulled off a 12-6 overtime victory. 240 yards of offense, but we either turned the ball over or had a huge penalty in the red zone. I have come to the realization in my career that complaining to the refs will do nothing. It all falls on the shoulders of the opposing coaches to not teach their players unfair and illegal tactics. Maybe it has something to do with coaching in New England.   Again thanks, Jeff Cziska, Southeastern Regional Hawks, South Easton, Massachusetts   *********** Coach, First year of the double-wing so I thought I would send you an update thus far.   Game 1 - stunk it up...after watching the film, we blocked everything wrong, etc.  I was first disappointed in us as coaches, thought there is no way our kids couldn't get this right.  It was a little of both, coaches and kids.  Kids even admitted they can't figure out why they would block like they did. 68 total yards of offense!  Boy, you should have heard the stands! New offense and only 68 yards...   We watched video and told our kids that if/when they decide to run things right, it will work.  I also told them that the most a team will improve in any season is in between week #1 and week #2...it worked!   Game 2 - Won 21-19 This is our 3rd win in three years...the first half we marched down the field like we had been running the offense for years...took a 21-0 lead.  We had some let ups in the second half...but managed to hold on for the win.  There are 3 3A teams in our league (we are one of them) and 8 4A teams...we beat one of the other 3A teams (first time in school history) and play the other tonight.   We are excited to put things together for a full game tonight...thanks and we will keep you updated.   Thanks for the update.   You have already been through one of the first tests of a Double-Wing coach - how does everyone (including the head coach)  handle it if/when it doesn't work as you'd hope?   I call it the test of stones, because that's the point where a lot of guys bail and give in to the yahoos who are telling them to open it up, and the guys with stones persevere and work to get better.   You are not ever the hump yet, I assure you, but you are definitely past the first real challenge.   The next hump, I think, will be dealing with "early-onset complacency," convincing kids who are unaccustomed to winning that just because they've won, they haven't arrived -  that they are nowhere near as good as they think they are, nowhere near as good as they have to get.   *********** I wish I can say all is well here.  I need some help.  My team is fairly talented.  Actually very talented.  You saw most at the clinic.  Some have been with me 3 years now, actually 15 out of 20 have.  We were ranked as the top team in our Division for scheduling so everyone want a piece of our ass. We played the number two team last weekend and kicked their tails. They could not stop the offense.    Therein lies the problem.  Our practices are very flat and at times, miserable.  Very little emotion.  At times just as if we are going through the motions.  I have been told they seem bored.  Don't get me wrong. They execute nicely and at time I am amazed they play as well as they do.  Just not used to the lack of enthusiasm.  Sometimes this results in less than perfect effort and that is when I tend to really get angry and go into discipline mode.  It has been suggested to "change up the practices".  I can but not sure if we will cover what we need to cover, and sometimes it gets boring.    I am starting to look at myself as maybe uninspiring?  Too old maybe?  Not sure coach but I am really second guessing my methods.  This is my 24th fall of coaching football.   More venting than anything coach.  Any suggestions?  Not sure I can take 10 more weeks of uninspired practices or non emotional sessions.   Can you help me out O Great Guru?   Without knowing anything other than what I've seen of the kids, what I know of you, and what I've seen elsewhere... I doubt that it is a question of your being too old or uninspiring.  Not likely.  It's been my observation that you're enthusiastic and hands-on and quite knowledgeable.  I'm sure that you explain things thoroughly and hold kids accountable, and have their respect.   Never discount the possibility that if you're doing the same thing you've always done and you're getting different results, it could be the kids.  Not all groups of kids come to you with the same emotional makeup. If the kids are flat and emotionless, there is always the chance that it's them.   BUT- given that, you are going to have to meet them where they are in order to get them to where they need to be, and that might involve more "fun and games" activities at practice to get them to start talking about how much fun something was, and looking forward to practice. While you very slyly sneak up on them with  the work.   They simply may not be geared emotionally to having to work repetitively toward a distant goal. Yet.  That doesn't mean that you can't get them there, but right now the challenge is to crank things up so that you can enjoy it again.   This is a question of putting morale ahead of anything else. Because a guy who ought to know,  Napoleon, said that "in war, the morale is to the physical as three is to one."   Knowing your ability to coach, I think that your kids are probably well-enough prepared that you can spare a few spots in practice to do some fun, competitive things without hurting your execution.   It might be a game of touch, crazy relays, a tug of war, keep away, Australian Rules.     Maybe during offensive time you could switch positions for a couple of plays (letting linemen play in the backfield).  Maybe something as crazy as running a play from a wild-ass formation, such as Lonesome Polecat.  You will be amazed how many kids will ask, "Can we run this in the game?" (Answer - "Depends on how well we run our basic stuff!")   Maybe I'm off-base here, but  it does sound as if it might make things more enjoyable for both the kids and their coach.   ************ I'm still expecting the other shoe to drop on Belichick.  There is a lot of complaining about his not being suspended.   For one thing, I suspect there is more coming because coaches and players who lost key games to the Patriots are starting to speak out - including LaDainian  Tomlinson (last year's playoff game) and Brian Dawkins (2004 Super Bowl).  Here's something nobody has mentioned so far: supposedly the video of the signals only helped the Patriots the second time they played a conference opponent.  But what if "sharing" your intelligence with a team that plays that conference opponent can stick them with another loss? The ramifications here are huge.   For another thing, I can't see the NFLPA standing by and allowing the commissioner to suspend drug users for four games while an arrogant f--k  who cheats and threatens the very integrity of the game is allowed to stand on the sidelines.   Finally, the guy is a fixer. This is much worse than gambling.  If a player/coach/official gambles, you still have to prove that he's been fixing games.  Although up until now the term "fixing" has only been applied to deliberately trying to lose, or not win by so much,  hasn't  Belichick also been  fixing games? You're telling that if you bet on the Jets, and the Patriots beat the spread, you wouldn't be pissed?   By the way, as to how much help this information can provide... a friend who coached with the great Don Matthews in Canada said that all Matthews wanted to find out - all he needed to know - was  (1) on offense, when are they running? and (2) on defense, when are they blitzing? and he had you at a disadvantage.   Belichick, it appears, knew a LOT more.  How big an advantage was that?   *********** MIKE HOLMGREN ON BELICHICK: "The only thing I want to say on that whole thing is, from what I've read, too often a comment is made like, 'Well, everybody does it.' Well, that's not true. That's flat not true. Everybody doesn't do that. I don't want us as an organization, or me personally, to get lumped into that kind of thinking, because we don't do that. The rules are rules. Play by the rules."   *********** Did the Patriots fans' applause for Belichick the Victim remind anybody of the way the fans in San Francisco lick Barry Bonds' feet because, while he may be a cheater, he's their cheater?   *********** Crime doesn't pay, eh? The Chargers' Shawne Merriman was suspended for four games last year for using, er, "performance enhancing drugs" (steroids, not Enzite). But he's back at it now, and to show that there are no hard feelings, he's starring in a Nike commercial. Just do it, Shawne.   *********** Next time the NFL sends a few pros out to teach your little kids some fundamentals, you might want to beg off, because they're not ones to be teaching things they know nothing about.   There Seattle was, tied with the Cardinals 17-17 with under two minutes to play, and driving to get into position for - what else? - a field goal, when they botched a simple handoff to the tailback, who instead of making a pocket, tried grabbing the ball with his hands, and fumbled.   The Cardinals recovered, and drove close enough to kick the winner themselves.   I have an idea for the NFL: maybe it should try paying youth coaches to teach fundamentals to its players.   *********** *********** It's hard to believe that not all that long ago, players played the game, quarterbacks called their own plays (without benefit of radio transmission) and there was actually a penalty for "coaching from the sidelines."   Lord, what an abomination the no-huddle, look-over-at-the-coach-while-you're-at-the-line  offenses would be to the founders of the game, who never envisioned a game in which coaches would control their players as if they were animations in a video game (another abomination which the founders also never could have foreseen).   Want an example of how giving coaches too much control of the game is ruining football?   The Raiders beat the Broncos in overtime Sunday with a 52-yard field goal.   Uh-oh. Not so fast, Raiders.   Seems that, standing over on the sidelines, Denver coach Mike Shanahan had surreptitiously called a timeout, right before the ball was snapped.   No need to tell somebody on the field to call a time out. Simply sidle up to the official on your sideline and say, "Time out."   Presto. No play.   In this case, no kick.   And the second attempt missed, hitting the upright.   And so the Broncos, given the benefit of good field position, drove close enough to kick a field goal from extra point range. And won.   Be still, my beating heart.   Are you kidding me? Why don't they just go all the way, and admit that the line between pro football and video games is becoming blurred, and give the coach a controller, with wireless connections to all his players?   Actually, it would make a lot of sense from a revenue standpoint - it would only be a matter of time before they started auctioning off the rights to the (YOUR NAME HERE) controller every Sunday.   *********** After watching the Patriots throw a TD to Moss to make it 31-7... you don't need to steal signs to beat a team that hasn't taken Cover 2 - 101. The Chargers lined up in cover 2 and let Moss simply take an outside release and head upfield - without the corner so much as laying a hand on him. Having played cover 2 for years, I can assure you that there was no way the safety could possibly have come over to help out.   *********** Don't rough Pitt's punter. He is a "Mixed Martial Artist."   *********** Overall, I don't think review is worth the trouble...   (1) The ball hit the ground after a "catch" was made by a Penn State receiver, as we viewers at home could clearly see. Unfortunately, the referee must have been busy looking at porn flicks, because he awarded the Lions a TD anyhow.   (2) It was fourth and one and the Duke QB managed to squirm forward for a couple of yards before his knee his the ground. The play was reviewed and even though we (and anyone else watching) could clearly see that he'd made it well past the yard-to-gain line, the referee spent his time under the hood getting updates on all the other games, and came back and awarded the ball to Northwestern.   (3) The most controversial calls in football - by far - are pass interference calls, and yet they aren't reviewable.   *********** I have to admit I've watched more Notre Dame football this season than I have in years, because I get so much enjoyment out of watching that arrogant pr--k Charlie Weis get put in his place.  Not to mention Jimmy-Boy.   *********** Speaking of the Pouty Punk... bumper sticker seen in Ann Arbor: HONK IF YOU SACKED CLAUSEN   *********** Hugh, From a story on Charlie Weis' Sunday practice:   "They are treating this week as though it were the start of training camp, going back to the basics...there will be no scout teams replicating the offense or defense of Michigan State (3-0), Saturday's opponent. The Irish will be focusing on themselves."   Really? Not simulating the opponent at all would seem to be a silly plan.   Christopher Anderson, Palo Alto, California   I'm guessing Belichick let Weis borrow the camera last Saturday and now he has MSU's signals. HW   *********** Take a look at Nebraska, Notre Dame and Syracuse, three big-time programs that hired guys from the NFL to "take them to the next level." Is there anybody out there who would care to present a convincing argument that Bill Callahan, Charlie Weis and Greg Robinson are improvements over the men they replaced: Frank Solich, Tyrone Willingham and Paul Pasqualoni?   The three NFL types came in with exactly ZERO experience as college head coaches.   Callahan did have two years' experience as head coach of the Oakland Raiders.   Robinson had no head coaching experience at any level, and Weis' only head coaching experience was at a New Jersey high school.   None of them came to college football with recent college coaching experience.   Since leaving college ball for the NFL following the 1989 season, Robinson had spent only one year at the college level - conveniently, it was the 2004 season, the year before Syracuse hired him, leading one to suspect that he was being "staged" - groomed for a college job. (Worked, didn't it?)   Callahan was just given a five-year extension worth close to $2 million a year.   Weis, midway through his first season, was given a ten-year extension, paying him some $3 to $4 million a year through 2015.   Robinson hasn't received his extension yet, but give Syracuse time.   Should their colleges choose to "go in another direction," it is going to cost them dearly.   Serves them right. Anybody that stupid deserves to pay.   *********** Speaking of Callahan - next time you hear a college coach say that 85 scholarships aren't enough, remember Ole Bill. The Trojans had finished whuppin' his ass, and in recognition of the accomplishment, pulled their starters. Not Callahan - he left his starters in to the end, and his first unit scored a cosmetic touchdown against USC's number twos.   A few thoughts:   (1) Nebraska's backups were all highly-recruited kids. And they've been coached by Nebraska coaches, who I presume are excellent at what they do. So are they so bad that they couldn't be trusted to play?   (2) Don't you just hate it when you try to show a little mercy and pull your starters, and the other guy leaves his starters in?   (3) If I were recruiting against Callahan, I would make sure that kids knew this. I would say, "If you think you're good enough to start at Nebraska, by all means go there. But if somebody there disagrees with you, and you're not a starter, you're not going to play much - even when the game gets out of hand."   (4) This misuse of players - dressing 100 of them and having them stand around on the sidelines like the spear carriers in the back of an opera scene while only the starters see action plays right into the hands of the feminists who keep arguing that football gets too many scholarships.   My thought: Callahan thinks that by punching in that late, meaningless score, people somehow will look back and think the beating wasn't as bad as it was.   *********** Okay, okay - enough of Nebraska's trashing of Frank Solich in order to hire a guy from Big Football. It wasn't the fault of the Nebraska fans, who are among the best there is anywhere. As an example, get this - many Nebraska fans bought Wake Forest season tickets, just so they could attend last week's Nebraska-Wake Forest game in Winston-Salem. And now they have donated their tickets for the remaining Wake Forest home games to The Big Brothers-Big Sisters of Forsyth County, North Carolina, and to the Warrior Transition Battalion at Fort Bragg Womack Army Medical Center.   *********** I thought that UCLA's Karl Dorrell was in way over his head when he was hired, a diversity hire, and nothing I've seen since - except perhaps last year's win over USC - has made me think differently.   He's another one whose doting AD gave him an extension the first chance he got, with little justification for doing so.   Dorrell's resume always lists him as Offensive Coordinator at both Washington and, before that, Colorado.  Under Rick Neuheisel.  Yeah, sure - like Rick Neuheisel was going to turn his offense over to Karl Dorrell.  You could probably list somebody as Steve Spurrier's offensive coordinator, too - but who's kidding who(m)?   More telling is the fact that the entire time, Dorrell was also the  receivers' coach.  I can't recall another case of a receivers' coach serving as offensive coordinator.   *********** I have heard a lot of color analysts lately who seem to think that their job is not to explain but to criticize. I have heard a couple of them use the word "horrible" to discuss the play of a college kid. Funny - you'll never hear them use that word to describe some of the truly horrible performances in the NFL   *********** "Finally the right team won," Kentucky coach Rich Brooks said, after his Wildcats beat Louisville. "It had more twists and turns than a Dickens novel." Huh? Dickens? Who says coaches aren't literate?   *********** It is a sad day to see a New Zealand All Blacks Rugby tradition outlawed by the NCAA by giving it a 15 yard penalty if performed by a team before the game. A white U of Hawaii QB stated that the school will do it anyway it is part of their culture. The culture defense is getting old. Hawaii has been doing this since oh, 2003 maybe? Well if we have to respect every culture in our US laws, then fine. But they really have got to stop infiltrating private organizations.   I think the Haka is cool, but I can see it being co-opted by white kids, to the point where it will be on the order of suburban wannabes sagging and flashing gang signs.   Hawaii's  "culture" argument  sounds a little suspect. The Haka is a part of the culture of the Maoris, the indigenous people of New Zealand.  Although the Maoris probably arrived there originally from someplace to the north, I'm not aware of any evidence that the Haka started anyplace but New Zealand, several thousand miles south of Hawaii.    I really have no idea how deeply embedded the Haka is in the culture of other Pacific islanders such as Fijians, Tongans and Samoans, but it is a relatively recent arrival on the Hawaii football scene.   By the way, although the Haka is meant to be intimidating, the rugby teams that play the All Blacks, such as the Wallabies (Australia) and the Springboks (South Africa) pay it no mind whatsoever,  merely standing around waiting for the show to end so they can get on with it, mate.     Actually, the Springboks put on an even more impressive and, I must say, fearsome  show before their home games, with authentic leopard-skin clad Zulu warriors conducting a war dance, complete with drums and spears.   *********** Hey, Huskers' fans - remember the days when you talked about Saturday's game and you heard somebody say, "they rushed for 313 yards yesterday!" - and they were talking about Nebraska?   And then they said, "and they only rushed for 33 yards on 29 carries" - and they were talking about the opponents?   *********** Iowa State lost to Kent State and then to D-IAA Northern Iowa, but the heat has to be off new Coach Gene Chizik after the Cyclones won the one that truly matters, defeating the Iowa Hawkeyes (of the mighty Big Ten), 15-13.   *********** Wisconsin over D-IAA The Citadel: tied, 21-21 at the half;   *********** We're now almost finished with the first phase of the season, and this past weekend, before the start of conference play, the powers of college football fattened up on lesser opposition: Oklahoma over Utah State, Wisconsin over The Citadel, LSU over Middle Tennessee, Penn State over Buffalo, Rutgers over Norfolk State, South Carolina over South Carolina State, Clemson over Furman, Georgia over Western Carolina, Michigan over Notre Dame...   *********** My wife and I got a call Saturday from one of our daughters. She was in Houston, and she was calling from the Rice-Texas Tech game.   She was there with our grandson, a high school senior, who was taking a look at Rice as one of his college choices.   She said that as they were walking into the stadium, somebody came up to our grandson, who was wearing a RICE tee-shirt, and said, "Hey dude - wanna carry the flag?" and handed him a big flag with the letter "E" on it.   He told them he didn't go there, but he was told that didn't matter.   And that's how he wound up running out onto the field along with the football team, carrying the flag that helped spell out R-I-C-E.   Next, he was text-messaging our daughter, asking if he could watch the game in the student section.   And that night, he was invited to spend the night with some members of Rice's club lacrosse team   Uh, to say the least, Rice left a very favorable impression on one high school senior.   *********** The latest ESPN "innovation" - having some guest celebrity "introduce" the starting lineups - really sucks. They'll have the basketball coach or some celebrity grad of the school read cue cards and tell us very little. Worst of all, they don't name all the players or where they're from, instead focusing on the one supposed star. I sure wish they'd just tell us who they are and where they're from, and leave the rest to the crew in the booth - who, come to think of it, should be doing the introducing anyhow.   *********** Ohio State's field goal kicker is from f--king South Africa! Expect more of this sh--, after the loony decision to move the kickoff spot back five yards.   If the problem was all the time wasted by kicking the ball into the end zone, it will return soon enough, as coaches take more scholarships away from football players and give them to soccer players who will be able to kick the ball into the end zone from the 35. They could easily have solved the whole damn thing by bringing the ball out to the 35 on all punts, kickoffs and missed field goals. Then watch what coaches do when their dumbass punters kick the ball into the end zone.   *********** Two weeks ago, would you have swapped places with Sylvester Crume? Didn't think so. How about Tommy Tuberville? Hey, a win over Kansas State, and Auburn's season's off to a good start.   Two weeks later, which one's shoes would you rather be in? Amazing how quickly and unexpectedly things can turn.   *********** What a shame that the announcers don't have sufficient vocabulary to call shotgun plays for what they really are - single wing plays. Instead, they wind up calling a tailback off tackle a "quarterback keeper."   It's been two weeks now - and Bonnie bernstein is still saying Appalaychian State   *********** Suppose I tell you that a friend of mine faced an opponent last Friday whose coach had gone on a radio show Friday morning and said, "I have the double wing figured out - I know how to stop it."   Suppose I also tell you that my friend's team whipped this braggart's ass by five touchdowns.   We have reached a sorry state of affairs when the braggadocio of the NFL fools makes its was down to high school coaches.   *********** On the Notre Dame beat...   Charlie Weis could make a Notre Dame fan long for the days of Joe Kuharich and Gerry Faust.   Notre Dame had -45 yards rushing against Michigan. But the passing game is Charlie Weis' real area of expertise, and it showed - the Irish had 56 yards passing.   Has it occurred to anybody that maybe the reason Charlie Weis earned genius status at New England was that Belichick was feeding him all the answers?   You just wait - let Charlie Weis get that first offensive touchdown under his belt (no jokes, please), and look out, BCS!   I know it's awfully early in the season, but it's almost time to roll out the old "Notre Dame's academic standards are too high" excuse. It couldn't possible be the coaching, could it?   Is it too late to change the NCAA rules so that Notre Dame can lose 7 or 8 games and still go to a bowl?   What's great about this whole Charlie Weis/Notre Dame fiasco is the thought that they're going to have to take some of their ill-gotten gain (money from their own tv network, bowl money they don't have to share with other conference members) and buy out his contract. And then he can go rejoin Belichick.   *********** Don't know what the temperature was in Florida on Saturday, but I've seen old Finnish men in the sauna who looked cooler than Mack Brown did on the Texas sidelines. And poor George O'Leary (wouldn't you love to have him right now, Domers?) looked even worse - like he was one short flight of steps this side of a heart attack.   *********** Knucklehead play of the season so far - Oregon punted to Fresno State, and downfield, a Fresno kid puts a lick on an Oregon coverage man, and then does a little struttin'. Only one problem - the Fresno kid had called for a fair catch and then decided instead to hit the Oregon guy. (A no-no, in case you didn't know.)   *********** There has to be a limit to protection of the quarterback. Louisville's QB, Brian Brohm, ran out of the pocket, and as he was about to be tackled, he lowered his head. The Kentucky tackler did the same, and the result was a helmet-to-helmet collision. And the tackler was penalized for leading with the head. Huh? Doesn't the runner bear equal responsibility?   *********** Duke now has a better record than Notre Dame.   *********** I've been saying this for at least 10 years now, but don't listen to me. Listen to a guy who knows - Bill Curry. I heard Bill Curry say it Saturday - "If you're going to run the option, make it a staple of your offense."   *********** Yee-haw!!!! Boston College got down inside four minutes against Georgia Tech and ran the clock out running Double-Tight Wing-T - Wing Right 88-G and Wing Left 99-G!!!!!   *********** You can't get away from it - note even in the South. Alabama and Arkansas are tied, 31-31, in one of the toughest tussles you'll ever see, and I'll be damned if they aren't interviewing a female soccer player on the phone from China. Who cares about football when the US women are playing soccer?   *********** Coach, Thought I would drop you a line and let you know that we opened up last night against a powerhouse out of New Haven (5 state title games, 3 titles in last 6 years). They were huge and fast. We were not. However, we had 73 offensive plays, they had 24. We had the ball for 11 minutes in the first quarter alone. Tolland 28, Hyde Leadership 21. No superstars, nothing flashy. It was true DW across the board. I hope you are well.   Yours in football, Patrick Cox, Tolland HS, Tolland Connecticut   *********** Went into Amsterdam, the  2005 state champions  and beat them 27-10 - A back Kenny Youngs  26 carries  200 yds 1 score - B back Marcus Hepp 8 carries 110 yards  1 score - C back Nyquan McGirt   7 carries  115 yds  2 scores - we  are home v Gloversville next week and we are presently  3-0 (and ranked #1 in the state)   Pete Porcelli, Lansingburgh, New York   *********** Coach, Stanton, Nebraska downs Osceola 33-7... Mustangs rushed for 380 yards on 50 carries... 1 for 3 passing for  20 yards.  Played a shotgun spread team that threw 40 times.  They   have 147 passing and 62 rushing (mostly QB scrambles)  We picked  them twice and recovered a fumble.  We sacked their QB 5 times.  A- back - 22 carries 155 yards;  QB - 8 carries 118; C-back - 10   carries 58 yards; B-back - 9 carries 45 yards.  We put in Reverse   this week and it hit for a 35 yard TD.  A real test will come next  week vs. a good Catholic school.  GO DW!!   The first half was mostly DW. In the second half, our QB went down out with cramps again!! (do you know any good cramp remedies?)  Anyways, that's when we move our A-back to SW tailback, Fullback to, well... fullback and put in a blocking back.  Then we run power to the A back, trap and wedge to the fullback, counters and sweeps to the C back.  Works pretty slick... I'm going to run more of it with the starting QB,,, he has 249 yards on 21 carries in 2 games.  Yeah, I know, he's a game breaker.  He reminds of that #88 QB you had on your DW2 tape.  We have 1157 yards rushing in three games.   Greg Hansen, Stanton High School, Stanton, Nebraska   *********** Coach Wyatt,  Well the double wing is rolling in the Imperial Valley!!!  Mid Valley Jr. Midgets just beat their arch-rival Mexicali Halcones 31-0.  Started the game with my group C, 3rd teamers, they took an 88 superpower 47 yards for a TD on the 4th play from scrimmage!  The kick was good 8-0.  Next offensive series we went Group B, 2nd teamers, mixed it up 88 and 99's with a 47c, took it inside the 5 and wedged it in, with the kick it was 16-0.  Next offensive series saw group A finally on offense,  some 88's and 99's, wedges and put it in with a blue-blue to the B-back, kick was good 24-0 at the half,  only 3 offensive possesions.  2nd half we got the ball to start(deferred again), group A tried superpowers, but they made adjustments and were stacking the C-gaps, so we  called blue blue but slightly underthrew a wide open A-back!!!  but that got them to back out their safeties, so we wedged and it popped for over 50 yards!  we wedged in the xtra point, 31-0 and pretty much the clocked ran out on them.......kneeled down to end game,  we are now 2-0 with 66 points scored to 0! Thanks again Hugh!!!   Matt Marrs, Head Coach, Mid Valley Jr. Midgets, Imperial, California   *********** Hey Coach, Hope all is well with you. This our second year now running your system and the kids are doing really well with it.We took over and 0 and 8 team that had scored 1 offensive touchdown and using the double wing got to .500 last season but we really have it going now. We are 3 and 0 and just took on a perennial league power last night and ran up and down the field on them. The traps and 47 and 56c were really good last night because there backers started flying to motion. 101 points in 3 games with tons of time going to our second team. Thanks for all your help!!!!!    Kirk Melton, Burlington Tigers, Burlington, Washington   *********** If you didn't see the Miami Northwestern / Southlake Carroll game, you missed two well coached teams running the exact same offense. MNW ended up winning 29-21. They employed a short kick strategy on punts to ensure that there would be no punt returns (that or they didn't have a good punter). They had been a victim of rule changes, none of which was the below the waist blocking, but the fact that when the ball goes into the endzone that it is no longer a touchback. While MNW's kids gave up when they saw that and expected the whistles to blow, their return man took it out of the endzone. Another fun thing was the fact that SMU has never had that many people in their stadium. The "Clash of the Champions" was well sold out with 31,500 or so paying to watch. It was not as big as last year's playoff game vs. Euless Trinity, but that game was played in a larger Texas Stadium. Overall it was a great game. The MNW's players were surprisingly classy, their fans remained idiots after the game rubbing their 8 point victory in everyone's face. It is a credit to Southlake's fans on their amount of class win or lose. The ignorant fans are still out there saying that those Miami kids were too fast for the SLC kids, they obviously missed the game. I almost wonder what would have happened had DLS or Bellevue played either one of these teams. I would think that this game will be used to petition for a National Tournament ending the Friday before the Super Bowl. Who knows, great game and a straight on kicker from Miami that could actually boot the ball close to the endzone. Can't wait till next week to see Laredo Martin vs United's grass ball attack, should be interesting. Ben Rushing, Fort Worth, Texas   I enjoyed the report, but you went too far, because I can tell you that there is ZERO chance of any so-called "National Tournament," for many, many reasons - one of which is that there is a thing in most high schools called basketball season.  Perhaps  the most important reason of all is that there is simply not enough money involved. The promoters get most of it. They may have put 31,500 people in those seats, but Miami Northwestern got nothing more out of it than travel expenses, and Southlake Carroll's AD admitted that they make a lot more on an average home game than they did from this one.  I love football and I love high school football, but I love high school games at high school stadiums. I wouldn't walk across the street to watch one of these "super high" games.  I watched all or part maybe 24 college games on TV Saturday, which left me maybe two minutes to watch the much-hyped high school game. That was enough for me.   More on the sleazy topic of the BIG HIGH SCHOOL GAME, by the author of :We Own This Game" : http://www.slate.com/id/2173804/   *********** My wife and I both got cars recently (gas guzzlers, of course) , and we thought it might be cool to get vanity plates - you know, something like 2-WEDGE, or XX47C. But then we got the ones the state issued, and now we're not so sure: she got 434-WTF, and I got 466-WTF. Finally, license plates we can remember!   All football programs are invited to participate in the Black Lion Award program. The Black Lion Award is intended to go to the player on your team "Who best exemplifies the character of Don Holleder (see below): leadership, courage, devotion to duty, self sacrifice, and - above all - an unselfish concern for the team ahead of himself." The Black Lion Award provides your winner with a personalized certificate and a Black Lions patch, like the one worn at left by Army's 2005 Black Lion, Scott Wesley, and at right by Army's 2006 Black Lion, Mike Viti. There is no cost to you to participate as a Black Lion Award team. FOR MORE INFORMATION   ALL NEW! CST's Feature Story on the Black Lion Award BECOME A BLACK LION TEAM GIVE THE BLACK LION AWARD TO ONE OF YOUR PLAYERS! Will Sullivan, Army's 2004 Black Lion wore his patch (awarded to all winners) in the Army-Navy game (FOR MORE INFO) The Black Lion certificate is awarded to all winners   Take a look at this, beautifully done by Derek Wade, of Sumner, Washington --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Yy6iA_6skQ

Say It Isn't So, Bill - The NFL's Product Gets Even Sicker, With the News That Belichick is a Cheat! (See"NEWS") An ESPN "Expert" Wrongly Credits the NFL With College Football Innovations! (See"NEWS") "Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold. For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it." (Proverbs, Chapter 8, Verses 10-11)   September 14, 2007 -   "In business, words are words, explanations are explanations, promises are promises - but only performance is reality." Harold Geneen, who built ITT into a $17 billion business   ALL NEW! CST's Feature Story on the Black Lion Award   Back in the spring, following the Chicago clinic, I took part in a "Ride-along" with a team of plainclothes Chicago policemen. Click on the "Chicago Police" seal to read more about it and see some exclusive photos, shown only on "News You Can Use"     *********** I recently launched a free e-mail newsletter, aimed specifically at those of you who love and respect the game the way it's seldom seen on TV these days, and still believe that it's possible to play football other than the way the NFL plays it. The second issue went out this past week. To get on the mailing list, e-mail me your name, location and e-mail address at: oldschoolfootball@mac.com (your information will never be given to anyone else)   *********** You have GOT to see what Kansas State has done to note their affiliation with the Black Lion Award!   http://inside.kstatesports.com/football/blacklions/   THE BLACK LIONS, VETS OF THE BATTLE OF ON ONG THANH, HELD THEIR ANNUAL REUNION AT WEST POINT LAST SATURDAY; THE GAME BETWEEN ARMY AND RHODE ISLAND WAS THE FIRST EVER COLLEGE GAME BETWEEN TWO BLACK LIONS TEAMS... THE BLACK LIONS WERE HONORED ON THE FIELD, AND TOM "DOC" HINGER, THE MEDIC WHO WAS WITH DON HOLLEDER WHEN HE DIED, WAS ASKED TO MAKE THE CEREMONIAL COIN TOSS (THE COIN WAS A BLACK LIONS "CHALLENGE" COIN). DOC WAS ACCOMPANIED BY A YOUNG MAN WHOSE GIFT FROM THE "MAKE A WISH FOUNDATION" WAS THE CHANCE TO BE OUT ON THE FIELD FOR THE COIN TOSS   Honored on the field at halftime: Tom Grady, Jim Shelton, Joe Costello, Mike Eliasof, George Crume, Carl Woodard, Steve Goodman, Tom Hinger (Mike Eliasof is a World War II Black Lion, a veteran of the fierce fighting in the Huertgen Forest)   DOC HINGER ESCORTS HIS YOUNG FRIEND OFF THE FIELD AFTER THE COIN TOSS ARMY'S BLACK LION, FULLBACK AND CAPTAIN MIKE VITI, MADE THE MOST OF HIS TWO CARRIES, SCORING ONE OF ARMY'S TWO TD'S ON THIS ONE *********** IT IS MY SAD DUTY TO REPORT THE DEATH OF TERRY ENNIS, HEAD COACH AT EVERETT, WASHINGTON'S ARCHBISHOP MURPHY HIGH SCHOOL. THE FOLLOWING ITEM APPEARED ON THIS PAGE JUST TWO WEEKS AGO....   Steve Kelley wrote a great article in the Seattle Times about Terry Ennis, coach of Washington powerhouse Archbishop Murphy, of Everett. (Everett could fairly be described as a football town. Not so very long ago, three Everett natives were head coaches in the Pac 10: Dennis Erickson at Oregon State, Jim Lambright at Washington, and Mike Price at Washington State.)   Archbishop Murphy is a powerhouse due almost entirely to the efforts of Coach Ennis.   Coach Ennis had retired after a successful high school coaching career and was out of coaching for a year before taking on the task of building the program at Archbishop Murphy from scratch.   How successful? In 1999, he was named Washington "Coach of the Century" for the winners he produced at Bellarmine Prep of Tacoma, at Renton, and at Cascade High of Everett.   At Archbishop Murphy, he faced challenges that small school coaches will identify with - he mowed the practice field, and he painted the yardline stripes on the game field. There were no locker rooms, so players and coaches alike dressed in their cars. There was no weight room.   In his third season, Archbishop Murphy won the state Class 1A title (4A is the largest), and is now a perennial contender in class 2A.   Along the way, Coach Ennis was faced with another challenge - In 2003, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. This past summer, he underwent chemotherapy while managing to get his kids ready.   He spoke with Steve Kelley about the lessons all of us learn when we are trying to build a winner at a stage when it is simply not reasonable to expect to win every game: "You celebrate little successes. You don't wait for a win. You try to pick little things that you can measure and say, 'Here's where we are. Here's where we were. Here's where we want to go.' I think that's really important."   *********** Found in the "Edge" section of the Portland Oregonian (boy, I wish I could say I'd written it):   "World's toughest job? How about being the guy who has to put Whup-ass into the can?"   *********** New Patriots' logo, compliments of Lou Orlando, Sudbury, Massachusetts     *********** The NFL closed in on Major League Baseball as the Sport of Cheaters, with the revelation that Bill "Hoodie" Belichick had taken his coaching expertise to the next level by videotaping opponents' signals. Cheating, if I may be frank.   Baseball has always sort of glorified cheating, making light of corking bats and doctoring the ball with assorted substances. To the best of my knowledge, pro football does not yet have the equivalent of a spitballer in its Hall of Fame, or a drug-enhanced 40-year-old breaking the career record for home runs.   But the Belichick cheating scandal brings in question the integrity of the pro game, and has the potential of rivaling the story of the way the 1951 New York Giants cheated their way to the National League pennant.   Down 13-1/2 games in the middle of August, the Giants won 37 of their last 44 games to finish in a tie with the Dodgers. Those were the days, before baseball decided to keep playing right into November - at night, yet - when the league champions went right to the World Series. But the tie, a most unusual occurrence, required a playoff.   Those were also the days when there were three baseball teams in New York, and being the biggest game in New York, the nation's nerve center, made baseball by far our biggest sport.   You may be too young to remember the way it all ended - Bobby Thomson's hitting the "Shot Heard 'Round the World" (a play on Ralph Waldo Emerson's description of the shot fired by a farmer at Concord Bridge) to win the playoff (they now call it a walk off home run or some damn thing). And you may never have heard of Leo Durocher, the Giants' manager, or seen the shots of him and second baseman Eddie Stanky dancing happily out on the field. Nor have you probably heard of Ralph Branca, the unlucky Brooklyn Dodgers' pitcher, who served up the home run that Thomson hit to win the game.   But you've almost certainly heard, somewhere, the voice of Giants' announcer Russ Hodges, shouting, over and over, "The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!"   It was a huge sports event. The Giants' dramatic late-season surge, culminating in Thomson's pennant-winning home run, went down as one of the great stories in baseball history.   Until 2001, that is.   For 50 years, rumors had persisted that the Giants had cheated - that they'd secretly stolen rival catchers' signs - and in 2001, in a story printed in the Wall Street Journal, several Giants' players confirmed that from about mid-season the team had stationed a spy inside the center field scoreboard at the Polo Grounds; the spy used a telescope to pick up the opposing catchers' signals, and used a buzzer to send the information to the Giants' dugout in time to alert the batter to what sort of pitch was coming.   In Joshua Prager's book, "The Echoing Green: The Untold Story of Bobby Thomson, Ralph Branca and The Shot Heard Round the World," Giants' catcher Sal Yvars said that he relayed the stolen sign to Thomson that a fastball was coming, and Thomson, so alerted, dug in and hit the fateful home run.   To baseball's everlasting shame, it has never investigated the situation, a far greater threat to the game's supposed integrity than Pete Rose's gambling or Barry Bonds' theft of Hank Aaron's record.   Now, with the news of Belichick's skullduggery, professional football faces a similar scandal, a similar threat to its integrity. The practice may very well be commonplace, and Belichick merely the only one who was caught. But no matter. The NFL has to send a clear message that it is committed to making sure its game is above suspicion, its victories not the result of cheating.   Belichick's cheating is especially troublesome, because the snarly little guy in the gray sweatshirt may have had the personality of an oyster, but he sure could coach, couldn't he?   Or could he?   How many guys that he "outcoached" are no longer head coaches because, unlike Belichick, they didn't cheat?   The nagging suspicion now enters my mind that the Patriots' Super Bowl wins may not have been on the up-and-up.   Simply taking a draft pick or two away from the Patriots and fining a guy who's making $4 million a year isn't going to send that message the way that a major suspension of Belichick would have.   *********** Apparently there are more people than Belichick stealing signals in the NFL.   There have to be.   How else do you explain the way NFL offenses suck?   How else do you explain that on the opening weekend, 14 of the 32 NFL teams in "action" were unable to rush for 100 yards. Cleveland (once the land of Jim Brown and Leroy Kelly) and Green Bay (anyone remember Lombardi?) both "rushed" for 46 yards. They didn't have 100 yards between them!   How else do you explain that in a league that has altered every rule possible to favor the passing game, 18 - EIGHTEEN! - of the 32 teams couldn't even put up 200 yards passing. Buffalo could muster only 72, and Arizona, with the great Matt Leinert slingin' 'em, barely made it with 100 on the nose.   Guys, these are not acceptable high school numbers. And high schools play only 12 minute quarters.   You might mention the near-total ineptitude of NFL offenses the next time someone asks you why you don't spread it out and open it up - like the pros.   *********** Another reason for the NFL's abysmal offensive numbers may be the fact that for many of the players, it's still training camp. I heard the announcers say that Ladainian Tomlinson was "rusty." Well, I guess maybe he was. He didn't play in the pre-season. So the Chargers, with the best runner in football, "rushed" for 77 yards.   *********** Even the stupidest of all football fans, the NFL-only bozos, may finally be wising up: with the exception of the Patriots-Jets game, the ratings of all other NFL broadcasts, on NBC, Fox and ESPN, were down against last year's number. (The League will surely attribute it to a lack of promotion of the opening weekend, and will hire more big-time music acts to perform before next year's opening games. And also move opening weekend to Labor Day, to try to steal the college audience.)   *********** Meantime, Oregon-Michigan viewership was up 61 per cent over the game in the same slot last year, and Notre Dame at Penn State was up 115 per cent.   This year's Notre Dame-Michigan game may be a matchup of two 0-2 teams, but I guarantee you I'll be watching, and I suspect lots of others will, too. Personally, I think the ratings will go through the roof. First of all, Notre Dame and Michigan have large following as it is. And for lots of others, call it the NASCAR effect. NASCAR always downplays it, but there are those who attend races because they enjoy seeing a wreck.   *********** Despite the mixed signals coming out about Kevin Everett - turns out the doctor who said he'd "walk out of the hospital" was dealing in second-hand information - there does seem to be a strong possibility that he will not be paralyzed for life.   Thank the Lord for that. We all hope that he makes a full recovery.   Meanwhile, the NFL says a collective "Whew!" and goes back to its same-old, same-old - leading with the head.   I don't happen to think that the NFL's "see what you hit" admonition is sufficient to assure a tackler's safety. If only it were that simple. I have this strange feeling that Kevin Everett saw what he hit. Right before he ducked his head.   The TV announcers make a huge deal about "helmet-to-helmet" contact, when it should be about "helmet-to-anything" contact.   And the officials have to start ejecting players for leading with the head.   *********** And then there's Mike Utley. I do not envy his lot in life. And I admire his grit.   But being paralyzed does not excuse one from making a statement like the one he made when asked about Kevin Everett's injury:   "It was a perfect form tackle."   Is it possible that some people actually believe that a head-first, head-down tackle is a "perfect form tackle?"   Was Big Football too scared of a lawsuit to rebut that statement?   "A perfect form tackle," eh?   Does this remind anyone of Kevin Everett? Several years ago, our local newspaper used this as the photo on the front of their fall sports preview section. I wrote to the sports editor and to the publisher as well, taking them to task for publishing a photo of a kid using a technique that could have resulted in paralysis or even death, and all I got was what amounted to a "whatever."   *********** Before the half was over at last week's game, Mike Johnston, of Corning West High in Elmira, New York, lost his best player, and got word that his wife was going into labor...   Coach, What timing. My QB, my best player on both sides of the ball, breaks his thumb, he broke it right through, so they will have to put two pins in it and won't let him play. We will have to see how quickly it heals, maybe some defense by the playoffs?   My wife was 12 days early. She was home listening on the radio and her water broke, they called my brother who was at the game, about an hour and a half away and told him to give me the news. I thought they were BSing me...he was afraid to tell me because he knew how bad I wanted to beat Forks. So of course he waited as long as he could and passed the responsibility off on my asst's. He's pretty competitive too.   Nonetheless, I left the game 4 minutes into the 2nd qtr. and of course it was the right decision. We ended up delivering about 10:45 pm. We had a baby boy, named him Brady Michael Johnston, 8 lbs 8 oz, 20 1/2 inches long, and full head of dark hair. We are thrilled! He joins his 13 month old sister Brooke who is all over the place right now.   Last night was the first night that my wife, Sara, and Brady came home. I think that we got a combined 1 hr. sleep. I don't envy women! They have a tough job. I'm finding out what it's like to be Mr. Mom for a couple of days and OMG its work! I'm trying to sneak film in every second. I have to get ready for Southside HS on Saturday night and get our people ready for practice so that they are prepared. I now have to find a QB, my back up isn't a great athlete but he is a great kid and will try his best! Just going to have to put some time into it and jam it down their throat. Losing my starter really changes the whole complexion of our team...But like I tell my coaches, they'll never stop us, we can only stop ourselves.   Thanks for the kind words...and be in touch. Love hearing from you.   Coach Mike Johnston   *********** TCU is tied with Air Force, 17-17, with :52 seconds to go, and the Frogs are on the Air Force 22. For some unexplained reason, they call a pass into the left corner of the end zone, and it's intercepted. And Air Force wins in overtime, 20-17.   *********** In China, Pepsi has switched from its blue can, used everywhere else, to a red one. Depending on whom you believe, it has something to do with the upcoming Beijing Olympics, or with Pepsi's sponsorship of Team China in assorted sports, or with the color of the Chinese flag.   The Wall Street Journal reports that when Coca-Cola spokesperson Kelly Brooks was shown photos of the new Pepsi can, he said, "Red? Great idea. Why didn't we think of that?"   *********** Our league does not allow filming games to scout, because they say that it is a federal offense to film a child that is not yours.   Wow. That's a new one on me.   I think your league's reasoning is wrong.   I think the people who wrote such a law - I'm assuming there is one - were  thinking about little kids in  a playground and some perv videotaping them through the chain link fence.  I can't disagree with that thinking.   But we're talking here about little kids with football helmets on that nobody can recognize. In most cases their own parents wouldn't recognize them without numbers on their backs.   All I can say, based on the number of youth football videos I get, is that if this really is a federal offense,  there are going to be a lot of youth coaches (and parents)  doing time in Leavenworth.   Stay out of prison, coach - your kids need you!   *********** We just got a #1 ranking in the state. We play at #12  Friday night   How do I defuse this #1 ranking thing or do I just let it go?   I'd say this--- Everybody talks about not getting enough respect - well, you can't say that about us.   We've got it, and we've worked hard to get it.  But if we want to keep it, we have to work to keep it.   It's just like a reputation. You have to work hard to keep a good reputation.   It takes you years to build a good reputation, and only one stupid act to lose it.   *********** The Biggest Story of the Year. The Greatest Upset in College Football History.   Whatever you call Appalachian State's upset win over Michigan, you will be interested in knowing that you will be able to get an unprecedented inside look at the game.   That's because SportSouth had a camera crew "embedded" with the Appalachian State University's football team since the start of fall practice, with plans to put together a 30-minute reality show as part of its "Under the Lights" series later this month. The camera crew spent three to four days a week with the team throughout training camp, even going to class with some of the players.   And then the Mountaineers did the totally unexpected, and beat Michigan.   SportSouth's camera crew traveled with the team to Michigan. They were on the team's chartered flight out of Johnson City, Tenn. They rode the team bus to the stadium. Their cameras were running inside the Appalachian State locker room before the game, at halftime and again after the shocking win.   "We captured lightning in a bottle," executive producer Steve Becker told Sports Business Journal. "My mind was racing in so many different directions after the game. My alma mater (Becker is a Michigan grad) had just been part of the biggest upset in college football, but the producer side of me was thinking we had just documented history. Now we get to tell the whole story of everything that led up to this game."   "Under the Lights: Appalachian State football - Date with Destiny" will air at 10 PM Saturday on SportSouth, with another showing scheduled for 8 PM Sunday. There will be additional showings will follow on SportSouth, FSN and possibly the Big Ten Network.   There are also plans for a DVD. I'm buying.   *********** Several years ago, our local paper gave up on the practice of having its sports writers predict the outcomes of high school games. Although its readers loved the predictions, coaches and players - and players' parents - caused too many problems with their constant bitching ("That'll teach you to pick us to lose!" "You never show us any respect!" Blah, blah, blah.)   This year, the paper decided to revive the predictions, but with a few tweaks: they wouldn't predict the actual scores - merely giving "the edge" to one team or the other - and they'd only print their predictions on their sports blog, instead of in the actual paper.   Sure enough, though, they got calls and emails complaining about the picks. Some were from coaches.   To which I would like to say, grow up, you babies. You have a team to coach, and they have a paper to sell. You want respect? Earn it. Coach your team, and be glad that the newspaper's even covering your games. Whoever thought they'd have to tell a high school football coach that this isn't squirt soccer, where everybody gets trophies and everybody's self-esteem is in the stratosphere?   Having worked for a newspaper, I know what it's like to be on the other side, and I know how certain coaches operate. I suspect that these complaining coaches are the same ones who whine about not getting enough coverage, and the same ones who when they go out of town and get their asses kicked, don't call the paper with the score.   *********** Michael Vick's father says he didn't know about any dogfighting in the old neighborhood.   Whoopie Goldberg says, "Where he comes from in the South, dogfighting isn't that unusual."   Jeez - who to believe?   *********** If you're able to get CSTV, and you're watching a game, and Brian Jones is doing the color - hit the MUTE button.   *********** ESPN's Gregg Easterbrook has a (somewhat long) discussion of the development of the "shotgun spread" in football, calling it a "fad" and predicting it is on its way out. Curiously, he never once uses the term single wing and attributes the shotgun to - you guessed it - NFL innovation.   Tellingly, he goes on and on, but treats the "shotgun spread" as if it were a monolithic offense from high school to the pros rather than a formation that frames offensive schemes, as if Indianapolis, Hawaii and West Virginia were running anything close to one another.   I think his knowledge of football history is pretty skimpy.  What the pros are doing and what most of the colleges are doing are vastly different.  The pros get no credit whatsoever for what the colleges are doing.  The colleges are always several steps ahead of the pros in terms of offensive innovation.   There are the Texas Techs and Hawaiis and Purdues.   They seem to be more derived from the run and shoot,  which is characterized by a highly unsophisticated running game in which the QB plays only a minor role.  But because they are derived from the run and shoot, they are much more productive than the pros.  To use a cliche, the "go vertical."   Then there are the West Virginias, Floridas, LSUs, Texases, etc.  Their quarterbacks run as well as pass, and are integral parts of the running game.  Most of them run an option of some sort. There is some debt owed to the veer in that many of them are reading as part of the option game, but they clearly go back to the single wing or at least to Dutch Meyer's TCU spread.  I have some video of TCU in the early 1950s running something that looks a lot like some of the option stuff that the big colleges are running.   When you see the average pro QB run, the trivia question is "What brand of refrigerator is he carrying on his back."  (Have you see Leinert run?)   Frankly, I don't see any connection whatsoever between the innovative stuff that the colleges are running and the NFL's stone-age shotgun attack.  I think that the NFL is simply a matter of everyone doing basically the same thing, and the guy with the best players wins.   *********** Hugh,   Can't begin to tell you how happy I am for Coach John Trisciani and the Trinity HS Pioneers.  As you know Coach Trish and I go way back to the time when I was the head coach at Trinity and he was in charge of the Manchester Bears youth football program.  Coach Trish was a winner then, and he is still a winner now.  It's great to see that the Trinity administration came to their senses and decided to have the kids play at a level in which they can compete successfully and win.  The last time that happened was in 1996 when we dropped down from Division I (where we struggled), and moved to Division II where we went to the NH state semi-finals two years in a row.  Continued success to Coach Trish and the Pioneers this year!   Joe Gutilla, Columbus, Ohio - Former Head Coach Trinity HS 1994-1998   *********** Students at Hobbton, North Carolina High School are no longer allowed to wear article of clothing with flags on them - not even the American flag.   Apparently the school has experienced some "controversy" regarding students wearing shirts bearing flags of other countries.   The county superintendent of schools called the situation unfortunate, but said educators didn't want to have to pick and choose which flags should be permissible. (This guy is going places. He has a future in the education bureaucracy and in the Democratic Party. PS- You don't suppose one of those "other countries" was Mexico, do you? HW)   *********** One of my 100 silver teams had a referee tell him that a OL cannot push another OL. Is the referee correct? I could have sworn that this was just an NFL rule and not  a high school rule.   Of course he's not correct.  It is not an NFL rule, either.  They can't lock arms or hold hands, but they can push each other.    You can't show an official where it is permitted -  there's nothing in the rule book saying that it is.  That's because a basic principle of the rule book is that if it isn't specifically prohibited, it is permitted.   But  you might ask him to show you where it is prohibited, because it isn't.  So he won't be able to find it.  My guess is that, like so many officials who don't have a full knowledge of the rules, he will proceed as if he is correct, regardless of the rule book.   *********** Just in case you think it's an unmixed blessing when a school such as Rutgers, long a doormat, becomes a football power, there is this, by Mark Di Ionno in the Newark Star Ledger...   The play came late in the game, when Rutgers expanded its lead over Navy to a comfortable level after a tight three quarters.   Navy's Reggie Campbell took the kickoff and ran full speed ahead up the middle with all the force his 168-pound body could generate. Campbell, almost always the smallest and fastest man on the field, hit a wall of XXXL-sized scarlet jerseys and was slammed to the ground at the bottom of the pile. He got up slowly, limping off. This gutsy kid, a slotback who already spent three quarters being chased and tackled by gangs of defensive linemen and linebackers, all weighing at least 100 pounds more than him, was then given a dose of Rutgers' student section class.   ''You got f---ed up. You got f---ed up. You got f--ed-up," they chanted.   Reggie Campbell is a senior. After graduation in June he has a five-year commitment to the American military, which, like it or not, is at war.   "This is how you treat people who may die for this country?" said Bill Squires, an Annapolis graduate (Class of'75) who was on the sidelines for the Friday night game in Piscataway and was shocked by the obscene chants directed at the Navy players and fans throughout the game. "It was the most classless thing I've seen."   Navy was booed and peppered with "You suck!" chants when they stepped on the field for both halves. Toward the end of the second half, Rutgers students in the new bleacher section began to serenade the adjacent section of Navy fans and uniformed Midshipmen.   ''F--- you, Navy. F---you, Navy. F--- you, Navy."   "There were wives and small children up there," said Squires, an academic recruiter for the academy who has been to dozens of away games and never seen such contempt directed at his team. "Our Midshipmen reacted the way they were taught. They didn't respond, but the band started playing 'Anchors Aweigh' to drown them out. Me, I felt like going up there and smacking somebody. I was mad, and it bothered me all weekend."   Booing, cursing, chanting obscenities, unfortunately, are now part of the game day experience. It's easily been three decades since fans across the country in all sports began spending more time and creative energy jeering the visitors and officials than cheering the home team. Rutgers is far from the worst. They're not even the worst in New Jersey, not with the Jets' fans still in town. Still, every penalty against the Scarlet Knights is greeted with a chant of "a--hole, a--hole, a--hole."   And now that Rutgers is winning, the long-suffering, self-effacing adult fans are being drowned out by a new generation of weight-room bully boys in scarlet T-shirts and red face-paint, who, from the safety of their seats, belittle the guys down on the field who take the hits.   Now that Rutgers is big-time, the old-time academic- and adult-minded fans are being elbowed aside by gangs of frat boys thrusting their fists and faces into the rolling ESPN cameras. What was it your old football coach used to say? Act like you've been there before. Not in the RU student section.   "At one point, I thought, we defend this country for people like this?" said Squires, who lives in West Orange. "I wasn't embarassed as a New Jerseyan. I was embarassed as a human being."   It was so noticeable that Rutgers athletic director Bob Mulcahy called down to Navy athletic director Chet Gladchuk yesterday to make sure there were no hard feelings, according to John Wooding, an assistant AD at Rutgers.   Some will excuse the behavior as kids just being kids, out to have a loutish, drunken good time. Spewing obscenities at the visiting team is just part of the fun.   But you'd hope our Jersey kids would be smart enough to make an exception for the service academies, especially the weekend before the anniversary of Sept. 11, their generation's own Day of Infamy. You'd hope they'd be sensitive enough to realize that some of those Midshipmen may soon be among the young American men and women fighting and bleeding and dying in Iraq and Afghanistan. Young Americans, the same age as those safe in the stands watching a football game with their faces and bodies painted red.   At the very least, you'd think the Rutgers students would have some appreciation for the effort the undersize Navy players put out. They aren't like the players from Louisville or West Virginia or some of the other ranked powerhouses Rutgers now finds itself among. They are what Rutgers was not so many years ago. Students first, athletes second. Except better.   The new Rutgers is a big-time football school, with all the hype and manufactured drama. Coach Greg Schiano leads his team through pregame Scarlet Walk, chest out, stomach in, looking every bit the general except without gold braids, epaulets and a full rack of medals. The band plays. The cheerleaders and dance team girls wave pompoms. The conquering heroes go past, eyes front. At game time, the scoreboard TV shows the team coming down the tunnel to a soundtrack from Armageddon. An Army helicopter chop-chops overhead (your tax dollars at work).   Football has always marched to a militaristic or tribal drum beat, to whip up players to greater levels of violence. The game is always likened to war by coaches, players, announcers and writers who haven't been to war.   But to Reggie Campbell and his Navy teammates, Friday night's game wasn't war. It was a game. War is around the bend.   They deserved better.   And that red on the faces of some Rutgers' fans wasn't body paint.   And Maryland students were highly offended when the university president tried to eliminate the use of F-bombs at games. We had to know this would happen when we stopped spanking our kids.   *********** Hugh, A hilarious spoof suggests historical figures as possible Lloyd Carr succesors. One candidate is Abraham Lincoln:   "For a program as ethical as Michigan's, Honest Abe would be a perfect fit. Plus, he definitely promotes diversity, which is one of the University's silver bullets."   Someone else noticed that with Abe at the helm, Michigan would never lose to an SEC team again.   Christopher Anderson, Palo Alto, California (and disappointed Michigan fan)   *********** WTF? Teams are still getting credit in the polls for what they were supposed to be, instead of what they've done.   The weekly ranking are still ranking are BS, as they are all based on how good people THOUGHT you were going to be.   As a result, South Florida beats Auburn - AT AUBURN - and Auburn is still ranked higher. Why? Because Auburn started out higher.   Because the experts thought Auburn would be better.   Hawaii (sorry- Hawai'i) was supposed to be good, so despite a big win over D-IAA Northern Colorado and an overtime squeaker win over Louisiana Tech, Hawaii is still in the top 25. It's several places ahead of Washington, which has beaten Syracuse and Boise State, both convincingly. But the Huskies weren't supposed to be any good, so they remain below Hawaii. And yet Boise State was supposed to be the team Hawaii would have to beat at the end of the season to make it into the BCS picture.   I won't even mention Virginia Tech, 1-1 after a mediocre showing against East Carolina and pasting by LSU.   *********** Hello Coach. There are plenty of coaches especially in NFL that have playbooks as thick as phone books but their team can't run the plays. It is evident as you saw this past week. I truly think that that is the problem with Notre Dame too. Too much NFL. Also Miami,Florida State,UVA,etc.   Teams that are going back to Vince Lombardi concepts of repetition and perfection are the ones with more success. I don't know I really did not enjoy the NFL at all. Alan's team won. He went 8-8/114 and he rushed for a touchdown. Running back on his team ran for 178. This week they have big challenge.   Glad to read about the DW teams around. Especially the new ones. The fire is still burning.   I think we will be going to see Notre Dame play Michigan State 22nd. Heck I'm excited to see a game in that stadium. Following week Louisville VS NC State. Well I don't know where all this is headed but at least I get to experience these games.   So you really don't think 4 National Championships for Clausen huh? I almost puked at the announcers kissing his ass on Saturday while the team was getting killed. Please don't tell me we are killing football too.   Best to you and Connie.Blessings,Armando  Castro, Roanoke, Virginia                       *********** Coach Wyatt: I wanted to take a moment to write and tell you how much I enjoy reading your "News You Can Use" every week on your website. I firmly believe that you have the best interest of kids at heart and that your system gives teams a chance to compete.   I am not a a double wing guy. I have run the wing-t for 8 years as a head coach at different schools. I took over a new program this year that has not had a success. We are struggling to get better and Friday night was no different. In fact, my frustrations caught up with me and we ended up in the spread trying to throw the ball and run some out of the gun. The results were laughable. This week in practice we went back to our base wing-t, moved our running backs up tighter to the line of scrimmage, and are going to get their the "fastest with the mostest"   Like I said before, I am not a double wing guy, but I have looked to your website for ideas and advice over the years. Before this week, I never thought I would need the reminder to run the ball and keep pounding it, but this week I needed it and your website brought that home for me. Perhaps the double wing is in our future.   Thanks for all you are doing for football.   Feel free to use any of this in your news section, but not the my name or the name of my school. We are in a building phase of our program as this is our first year, and I don't want anyone to think I am down on our kids. PS- Can you sign me up for the newsletter?   Nice to hear from you and glad to hear you enjoy the site.   It isn't important that you run the double wing.  It's important that you have a system - something you know and believe in and can teach effectively and you kids can run. Something that in your judgment best helps you carry out your mission, which is to to give your kids their best chance to be successful.    I am constantly shocked at the number of coaches I see who forget that that is their missions, and seem to be running the offenses they do for self-gratification - I suspect they are Urban Meyer wannabes.     As a result, they are not very good, their kids are condemned to underachieve, and, best of all, they can blame their failings on the lack of talent.   I'm glad you saw the light.  As I like to tell kids, a lot of offense is like splitting firewood.  You're not going to be successful with the first swing of the sledgehammer.  Or the second.  Or the third.  But if you just keep swinging...   *********** Perhaps you recall the Gang of 88 - a group of Duke faculty members, mostly diversity hires, representing one or another bogus departments (with "Studies" at the end of their names), who openly accused the lacrosse players of something of which there was never any evidence. The creeps even took out a newspaper ad attacking the kids. After all, they were male, white and wealthy. What targets!   Now, though, a group of Duke alums has decided to limit their annual contributions to the university to 88 cents - until the university president and the Gang of 88 either acknowledge that they were wrong in rushing to judgment, or until they are all dismissed.   *********** Hey Dad! I just wanted to say that Rob and I were so annoyed by Mike Golic last night. Many of his comments are simply inane, but the clincher for me came in the 3rd quarter. When Leinert went to throw the ball downfield to Larry Fitzgerald, he appeared to have missed wildly. Golich was all over Leinert (as he was the entire game) about how awful the pass was. Then the replay showed that Fitzgerald had been illegally bumped downfield, which Ditka had pointed it out prior to the replay. Not only did Golich not take back any of his (many) harsh comments about Leinert's pass, but he said he was glad they hadn't thrown the flag on the play. His direct quote was,"It's tough to go with the letter of the law every time." Obviously, that's the way the MNFL feels, given the number of holds they let go! Just thought I'd see if you'd heard him! Love to Mom, too, Cathy Tiffany, Duvall, Washington   I think Golic sees himself as the next Madden.   I don't care for Madden, but to his credit, at least he's coached the game.   I am annoyed by all the guys posing as experts who get way outside of their area of expertise but don't let that stop them.  A week or so ago, Ed Cunningham, a former center, was criticizing a kicker's form.   I'm also annoyed by guys who won't admit that they were wrong.  Chris Spielman is another one like that.    Ditka is an expert because he has been there and coached it. Golic is a more modern-day version of an expert - he's an expert because he's an expert.   There are way too many guys pontificating on the air about things they don't know that much about.   *********** Coach Wyatt, (You wrote)   Dear Coach Zazzaro,   Thank you for your interest in me.  However, I have restricted my college search to the South, and that means Colorado College is no longer on my list.   Again, thank you for your interest, and best of luck this season.   Matt Love   And here was the coach's response, to a kid who had the courtesy to write him:   ok   I am not kidding. That's all the guy wrote. Two f--king keystrokes, and no signature. Pure class. I applaud Matt for sending "Coach" Zazzaro that message.  However, I was shocked by the coach's reply. If we had been recruiting young Matt, and he had taken the time to send me a polite response like that, I would have replied along the likes of:   Dear Matt,   Thank you for your reply.  I understand your desire to stay closer to home.  However, if you decide to widen your search, we would love to have the opportunity to show you and your family our excellent facilities, as well as the wonderful education that Colorado College offers.  Regardless, we wish you the very best in your search and if we can be of any service to you in the future, please do not hesitate to give us a call.  We're here for you Matt!   Sincerely,   Coach So&So   Colorado College   Coach Wyatt, I can't for the life of me understand why they wouldn't even have some sort of "form letter" that states something along the lines of what I printed above.  All they'd have to do is fill in the young man's name.  Incredible!   The coach should be an ambassador for his team and university.  ANY opportunity that you have to send a potential recruit a flyer, letter, card, DVD, etc. is simply good business.  Matt may have not chosen to attend there, but if any of his teammates were looking for a school to attend, Matt could have shown them the response he received from Colorado College (had it been a good one).  "Word of Mouth" is one of the best ways to spread the "good news" about your program.  We got a QB one year simply because I was the ONLY coach that answered the dad's message on my answering machine.  None of the other organizations had the courtesy to return his call.  This kid was our starting QB in 2005.     I've heard many tales of kids ending up transferring to schools (when their first choice didn't work out) and going to another school that may have been way down on the list in terms of "glamour" but made the kid (and his parents) feel very welcome and at ease.   Dave Potter, Durham, North Carolina   Thanks for writing.  I am constantly amazed at the utter lack of   common sense shown by some people who are their college's only window   on the world to some kids who might otherwise have attended.   *********** From a coach in Pennsylvania...   As you may remember I went back to college to get certified to teach high school mathematics.  I wanted to share with you some info about a meeting I had to attend about student teaching (which I am currently doing).  The speaker was talking about multicultural diversity and kept mentioning what different hand gestures that we commonly use in America can mean to a person from another country.  By the end of the meeting it was clear that I should be teaching with my arms at my side and my eyes closed so as to not offend anybody.  The best part of the meeting is when a female friend of mine sitting beside me said in disgust "Whatever happened to when in Rome do as the Romans do".  She brightened up my day and I immediately thought of you and of course that she is going to make a MAN very happy someday.   (She'll make a great teacher, too - if she can stand the steady barrage of B-S from the multicultural, feminist lefties who run the education scam. HW)   *********** K-State's web site is awesome. I'd love for somebody like them to put together a poster (I'd use a K-State Black Lions poster in my locker room) to promote the award without crossing the lines of promoting the Army, etc., that I know we have to be careful of. I know they could whip something out form their marketing department in about 30 minutes and charge it to the recruiting budget.   I agree about Bill Curry and the Army game. I appreciated listening to him, but was amazed that he didn't have a "name" game. Then I said "screw the big games, I get to listen to a good announcer on a game I care about." I also like that ESPN announcer Ron ____, the guy that sort of looks like a young Keith Jackson. Pretty understated and lets the game speak for itself.   The white-out at Penn State was pretty awesome. My wife and her three brothers are alums (one walked on as a linebacker), so I've adopted them just behind my parent's alma mater of Ohio State (Bradley University has good basketball, but no football). Back to the white-out...that's what college football is all about (and why it's better than the NFL by far).   Have a great day.   Todd Hollis, Head Football Coach, Elmwood-Brimfield Coop, Elmwood, Illinois   *********** Hello Hugh...........hope this email finds you happy and healthy.........where did the summer of 2007 go???.....I am confident to say that I hope everything is fine with you and your family...........my way is pretty good right now..............wife is fine and working as a cafeteria manager at a local elementary school (actually the one I went to back in the 60's).........our daughter graduated from college in May and now is a RN at University Hospitals in downtown Cleveland.........Tim is the starting center (6' 248) for our Hiram team...........he is also doing all the snapping for punts and extra points/field goals.............he had an awesome first game against Bethany College this past Saturday.........he graded out the highest of all the linemen........he also had 4 pancake blocks....I AM SO PROUD OF HIM......going into the 4th quarter, we were down 10-0 and we lost 24-7.....the 4th quarter was very exciting..............over the summer, I got switched to secondary coach........a great move for me...........my least knowledgeable position, but I working with another great assistant who has taught me a lot already.................this is the first time in 25 years that we have JV team and I am the head coach for the team...........everyone is very excited about our team.......we brought in 47 recruits.........and some good ones...........so hopefully we are going to win some games this season........you can always go to our website......http://www.hiram.edu/athletics/menssports/football.html    I am also teaching the high school students during the day.......coaching and then teaching two college math classes at Cuyahoga Community College Tuesday/Thursday evenings.......this is my 29th year of teaching and coaching........   please stay in touch.....God Bless and Peace.....your friend......Michael (Mike Glodowski, now an assistant at Hiram College in Ohio, was one of my very first converts to the Double Wing when he coached at Richmond Heights, outside Cleveland. Mike built a small-school powerhouse there, and hosted one of my very first clinics, back in 1997. HW) All football programs are invited to participate in the Black Lion Award program. The Black Lion Award is intended to go to the player on your team "Who best exemplifies the character of Don Holleder (see below): leadership, courage, devotion to duty, self sacrifice, and - above all - an unselfish concern for the team ahead of himself." The Black Lion Award provides your winner with a personalized certificate and a Black Lions patch, like the one worn at left by Army's 2005 Black Lion, Scott Wesley, and at right by Army's 2006 Black Lion, Mike Viti. There is no cost to you to participate as a Black Lion Award team. FOR MORE INFORMATION   ALL NEW! CST's Feature Story on the Black Lion Award BECOME A BLACK LION TEAM GIVE THE BLACK LION AWARD TO ONE OF YOUR PLAYERS! Will Sullivan, Army's 2004 Black Lion wore his patch (awarded to all winners) in the Army-Navy game (FOR MORE INFO) The Black Lion certificate is awarded to all winners   Take a look at this, beautifully done by Derek Wade, of Sumner, Washington --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Yy6iA_6skQ

Is the NFL's Product Sick, or What? (See"NEWS") Rich Brooks Shows a Touch of Class! (See"NEWS") "Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold. For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it." (Proverbs, Chapter 8, Verses 10-11)   September 11, 2007 -   "Each new generation born is in effect an invasion of civilization by little barbarians, who must be civilized before it is too late." Dr. Thomas Sowell, on a parent's duty   ALL NEW! CST's Feature Story on the Black Lion Award   Back in the spring, following the Chicago clinic, I took part in a "Ride-along" with a team of plainclothes Chicago policemen. Click on the "Chicago Police" seal to read more about it and see some exclusive photos, shown only on "News You Can Use"     *********** I recently launched a free e-mail newsletter, aimed specifically at those of you who love and respect the game the way it's seldom seen on TV these days, and still believe that it's possible to play football other than the way the NFL plays it. The second issue went out this past week. To get on the mailing list, e-mail me your name, location and e-mail address at: oldschoolfootball@mac.com (your information will never be given to anyone else)       *********** You have GOT to see what Kansas State has done to note their affiliation with the Black Lion Award!   http://inside.kstatesports.com/football/blacklions/   *********** Is the NFL's product sick or what?   Consider: there were 26 teams in action Sunday... 16 of them scored one offensive TD or less. FIVE of them didn't score a TD at all.   Consider: In only five of the 13 games did the two teams combined score more than two offensive touchdowns.   Consider: There were 40 field goals kicked and 45 offensive touchdowns scored. But if you took away just three games - Detroit-Oakland (7 TDs), New England-Jets (6 TDs), and Dallas-Giants (10 TDs) - the score would be field goals 32, offensive touchdowns 22   Crummy game of the day: Green Bay kicked 5 field goals (no offensive TD's) to defeat the Eagles.   Deception: Matt Leinart lines up in the shotgun next to a running back. Guess who will run the ball.   Suspenseful moments: Field goal kickers were 40 of 50 for 80 per cent. Talk about suspense! The odds of an NFL kicker making a field goal are greater than the odds of an NBA player making a free throw. Jeez. If you've got to settle games with field goals, then move the f--king goal posts closer together. Until they're, oh, six feet apart,   Adding insult to injury: I came home Monday night in time to see the Ravens on the Cincinnati one yard line, and they never ran the ball. All they did was throw! And they were intercepted!   The death of humility: Chad Johnson shamelessly promoting himself for the Hall of Fame, and ESPN shamelessly pimping for him. (People like watchin' that stuff on Sportscenter, you know what I'm sayin?)   I actually heard one of the network puppets saying that the defenses were ahead of the offenses because most of the starters had been held out of the last preseason games! So now, the pre-season screwing of the fans is extended into the regular season.   The NFL can market and package their product all they like, and there is no one better at it than they are, but when you take off the fancy wrapper, what's inside is still horse puckey.   *********** Kevin Everett. God bless him. I have no comment on the tackle. None whatsoever.   By the way, try finding the play on YouTube. Not a chance.   There were probably at least a million people TiVo'ing the Broncos-Bills game, but you won't find a single clip on YouTube,   Guaranteed, the NFL gently reminded YouTube that when they make that statement about the broadcast being the property of the National Football League, they are prepared to back that statement up with an army of lawyers.   *********** Coach Wyatt, are you sitting down?  Just kidding I am sure you have heard this same story over and over again.  Well we had our first game yesterday in Yuma, just after 3:10 by the way,  it was over 110 degrees and humid.  We lost the coin toss and had to kick, so of course we onsided it and recovered by my no.2 A-back, we sent in our 3rd team offense, 8 are mpp's with the QB a very gifted 1st year player who is my 1st team Yend, the AB is our starting corner on Def. and the BB is my 2nd team BB and starting DE.  We practiced these kids hard for 6 weeks they wedge pretty good on our first team Defense, so the decision was made to give them a shot to start our first game with our first team standing by to bail them out if need be.  Their goal for this game was 1 first down,  I told them if you get 1 and look good I would let them try for another.   The drive started on Yuma' 48, tight rip 2 wedge,  8yards, 2nd play 7 yards , then 8 yards, then the officials noticed the special mouthpieces on two of our players which were clear, they gave us an official time out to change them, during that time the other coaches frustration got the better of him and he was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct!  I know the feeling this is exactly what Chris Austin did to us in the playoffs last year!  Well now we are on the 12 yd line,  they are stacking the middle and we put it in 3 wedges later!!!!!!!   With the PAT by my great kicker, Mid Valley 8 Yuma 0.  What a great effort by our 3rd team offense to start the game.  Next offense series we had 2nd team offense in with my 1st team BB, 1st play Wedge,  he backed out of it after 4 yards and ran it outside for 45 yards untouched for the TD.  Bad snap on PAT  now it's 14-0.  2ndQuarter, 3rd offfense series,  more wedge, some superpower,  a bad Red Red, (2 banana routes?) we turned over on downs,  got an interception and finally put in the 1st team offense.  The AB were having trouble again staying in tight to the pulling tackle and were running into the Kickout blocks,  but wedge worked  again this time the BB broke one out the middle of wedge and took it 35 yards to the 2 yd line.  We wedged it in,  Got the PAT and went up 22-0.   On our last offensive series 1st team CB broke a lead 47 criss cross 40 yards for the TD! the safety was the first defender to touch him! now it is 28-0 and pop warner rules no kicking game,  but the ref says we could run a play so we wedge for the xp, 29-0 at the half.   2nd half we reward 3rd team offfense and let them start the 3rd quarter just wedging it against a defense that is stacking the middle and blitzing the a gaps,  but by rule we must run inside the tackles, so we wedged it some more and turn over on downs.  The rest of the game we went with our 1st and 2nd offense working on 3 trap @ 2, and 7 G,  some real tough yards, because they always had at least 9 or more in the box,  I snuck in an 88 super power late in the game and the AB ran it perfectly following his pullers and found that cut back crease, ran right at the safety, cut it back to the right and took it in for the TD, I declined the PAT attempt, so as not to be seen running up the score,  and the game ended with it 35-0.   This was the team we beat in our Semi-finals last season, they were no creampuffs, just not prepared to stop us.  And I know someone in Yuma has run your system before so they have seen Double Wing.  Next week we have our arch-rivals the Mexicali Halcones, the team we beat last season in the championship in 5 overtimes.  I guess the scheduler wanted to put us to the test right out of the gate this season!!   I want to thank you, we installed your system,  It was Chris Austin's suggestion to run the Wyatt system,  I have all your DVD's and the playbook and I attended your clinic in Socal. (Chris Austin is the coach of the Pop Warner Super Bowl-winning Los Alamitos team whose B-Back, Cody Paul, is the star of numerous videos on UTube.)   What great results so far in this young season.  When I get some good film footage I will sure send you a copy, and keep you posted on our season as we go forward.   Thanks again Hugh,   Matt Marrs, Imperial, California   Head Coach, Mid Valley Sundevils Junior Midget Pop Warner   1st year Wyatt Double Wing team!   *********** Coach Wyatt- Thanks for a great product.  I coached my first game with our 5th and 6th grade team this past Saturday in a rain soaked game.  Using your Double Wing system, we were in control of the game the whole time.  I had to laugh when I heard a parent from the other team yell that we were telling them where we are running the ball by our motion.  We ran 99 Power the first play and 88 Power the second play.  Then we hit them with 56-C and the whole defense went after our C back on the fake.  3 plays and we are up 6-0!  Thanks for giving our team a system that is fun and works!  We also enjoy getting 3 or more running backs involved in our game plan.  We are now 1-0 and will keep you up to date with our progress.   Brooks Rawson, Alamo Red Devils, Alamo, Tennessee   *********** Hugh, Game #2 under the Double Wing went pretty well tonight. We rushed 31 &endash; 281, 9.06 avg. and 4 TDs, no fumbles and no negative plays. Final score was 27 &endash; 0. This is the most yardage that this team (they have been together for 3 years) have ever gotten. Last year we had 710 yards in rushing and passing in 9 games. This year we have 450 yards in 2 games. Thanks again for all of your help. Take care,   Dave Marco, Hinsdale, Illinois   *********** Hey Coach! I don't know if you remember me. I was up in Colorado, coached at 3 high schools there, offensive coordinator. You gave me a lot of help when I was at Lyons, Colorado and it was much appreciated!   Your NEWS column always makes me laugh and I have found over the years that you and I think exactly alike, you just do a much better job at putting those thoughts in writing.   We are down in Lake Havasu City, Arizona now. I am working in the boat business and keeping an eye on the local high school team. They could use a lot of help, but as is usually the case, the don't want any...so they don't get any.   Last Friday night, they were down 21-0 in the first half of the first quarter and it just got worse. The really bad news is that they had more talent....speed, size, skill guys, etc than the team that spanked them. They are trying to run some version of the spread gun (can't really tell what they are trying to do) their linemen are in a 3 point for an average of 6 seconds before the ball is snapped on every play. They motion someone every time but there is no adjustment by the defense, the D just waits for the ball to be snapped and since the line can't move, after 6 stationary seconds....   They actually have some great looking kids who want to compete, I sit there slobbering in the stands just thinking about what I could do with those guys in the DW.   Anyway Coach, keep up the great work. I am your number one disciple and I tell everyone that will listen and some that don't, that there is only one way to play football and it doesn't happen in the No Fun League.   Gary Creek, Lake Havasu City, Arizona   Coach (Even if you're not still coaching, you're still talking like a coach)   Good to hear from you.  Maybe you will find someone down there whom will listen to you, but I doubt it.  First of all, you're an outsider - although there's plenty of them in Arizona - but second of all, you might as well be a sporting goods salesman trying to sell them leather helmets. HW)   COLLEGE ---   *********** A slow learner: A week after the upset, Bonnie Bernstein was still saying "Appa-LAY-chian State."   *********** No Comment by Lou Holtz on the egg he laid with the stirring "pep talk" that he'd have given if he'd been coach of Michigan.   *********** Oregon lined up in Lonesome Polecat and went for two - and made it. Oregon ran a Statue of Liberty - nice play - but then scored on a fake Statue of Liberty, with Dennis Dixon carrying. Try to find it on Youtube if you can. Oregon OC Chip Kelly, in his first year in Eugene after making a name for himself at New Hampshire, made Michigan look like a high school team.   *********** Replays are getting to be a pain in the ass. Maybe they bother me because they remind me of a society in which NOBODY accepts a decision any more. Kids get caught with beer in the car and their parents appeal and they're back on the team by the next game. Murderers spent 20 years on death row, exhausting appeal after appeal. I thought one of the great virtues of sports was that they taught you to accept the fact that life isn't always fair.   *********** Even Joe Paterno does it! Third and one, and Penn State gives it to a single back, lined up seven yards deep!   *********** Is there a football fan in the entire world who tunes in a game and wants to hear Dick Vitale?   *********** When Notre Dame hired Charlie Weis to bring his NFL offense to college football, did they realize that that meant they wouldn't be scoring many offensive touchdowns? (The Sun Coach has yet to figure out a way to score one ths year.)   *********** Hey, Notre Dame - sorry, but you can't have Tyrone Willingham back. He's 2-0 at Washington, you know, fresh off a win over Boise State. Charlie Weis is, what- 0 and 2? Think of Tyrone Willingham every time Tom Zbikowski does something good - like score your only touchdown of the year so far. He's a Willingham recruit, you know.   Willingham. You know - the guy you all bad-mouthed because he couldn't recruit?   But didn't he recruit Zbikowski, and Jeff Zamardjia (Sp), and Brady Quinn (last person to quarterback a winning Notre Dame team)?   *********** Mike Patrick said that Jimmy Clausen "has been the subject of a lot of nasty stuff," and then proceeded to get downright nauseating in his effort to try to cover for Da Kid Wit Da Spiked Hair. Sure, he pulled up in a stretch Hummer limo to the site of his signing announcement (which happened to be the College Football hall of Fame). But see, they had a lot of people, and they all wantd to ride in the same car... Patrick didn't explain the B-S about the four rings (which, by the way, ain't happening, Sonny).   *********** One nice thing about watching Army on ESPN Classic is that you get to listen to Bill Curry, who may not be scintillating, and may not have a marquee name any more, but sure does know his football.   *********** East Carolina's QB almost upsets Virginia (We Will Prevail) Tech in Blacksburg a week ago, and then a week later pulls off the upset over North Carolina in fron of the home folks. And the TV guys announce that their play of the game is the guy who made the winning field goal - after missing three of them earlier. Grrr. F--king keekers!   *********** I make no secret of the fact that Rich Brooks is my favorite college coach. I worked at his camp for nine years when he was at Oregon, and he really helped me get a good high school job. I always admired the fact that he was totally honest, a no B-S guy. And I admired the way he was able to get the best out of himself and his players. With few resources, (those were the days before Phil Knight started bestowing his largesse on Oregon) he managed to build the Ducks into a program that could beat anyone in the Pac-10.   From there he took the head job with the Lo Angeles Rams, then had to deal with the turmoil of a move to St. Louis, and with an owner, the notorious Georgia Frontiere, who inherited the franchise when her husband, Carroll Rosenbloom, died. She tossed Rich overboard in order to hire Dick Vermiel.   Nest stop was Atlanta, where as Dan Reeves' defensive coordinator he halped get the Falcons to the Super Bowl, even taking over as acting head coach when Reeves had heart issues.   Now he's at Kentucky. He inherited a program hit-hard by probation, but after a few really trying early years, his 2006 Wildcats broke through with an 8-5 final record and a Music City Bowl win over Clemson.   This year, the Cats are off to a 2-0 start, with wins over Eastern Kentucky and Kent State (by the way, Kent State's Julian Edelman is a heck of a QB), with Louisville coming up this weekend. Rich has never beaten the Cards, and a couple of the losses, when he was trying to turn things around, were, frankly, embarrassing.   To give you an idea of the kind of guy he is, after the Kent State game, he went to midfield to shake hands with Kent State's coach, then he sought out Julian Edelman ("That QB is a real man," he told me. "He was a tough guy to get down).   And then he headed for the soldiers. A large contingent of soldiers from Fort Knox, Kentucky were at the game, and he ran over to them and began shaking their hands.   And then we went to commercial.   And when we came back, there was Rich Brooks, still shaking soldiers' hands.   When I told him how much that meant to me, and how to me that showed his true class, he said, "We have never lost with the soldiers in the stands." *********** College and pro - in most cases, there's just one running back behind the QB, and he's six or seven yards deep. I mean, we know who's going to get the ball and all that - it's no secret. But does the QB have to hold the ball out with arms extended for what seems like several seconds before making the actual handoff? Are the backs that stupid that they don't know who's going to be giving them the ball?   *********** Not to say that it would have been different if the Oregon Ducks hadn't intercepted Chad Henne early,  but Mike Hart was running well, and it's possible that if Michigan had simply run at them from the start, the Ducks might not have been able to hold up.   But once the Ducks broke serve, it was as if Michigan was their scout team. It really did look like JVs against the varsity on a couple of long TD passes, but that's not being fair to Oregon. Truthfully, so good and so well executed was Chip Kelly's plan, that I'm not sure that any team in the country could have stopped Oregon on Saturday.   HIGH SCHOOL     *********** TEXAS - Hello Coach Wyatt, We opened our season on Friday after having our original first game canceled last week due to lightning. We beat Carrizo Springs HS 21-0. We lost 3 fumbles in the first half, fumbled again in third quarter, but did not lose possession.  We ran for 395 yds, completed 2 of 3 play action passes (58 black-o and 47-c pass) for 38 yds ( 1 TD). Leading rushers were c-back Ricky Munoz(11 for 86) and Jerry Gallardo (10 for 84).  Ten backs carried the ball averaging almost nine yds a carry as a team.   We did not punt once. Felt like we could have won by a bigger margin, but turnovers and a couple of false start penalties hurt us.  Defense played well.   We start district play this week vs. another Laredo school, Cigarroa HS(named after a local physician/philanthropist).     Also, over in east Texas, Coach Wayne Gandy at Joaquin HS had an open date this week after opening with a 37-6 victory over Big Sandy HS. They were pre-season #6 ranked team in class 1A. They are now the #2 ranked 1A team in the state. Coach Gandy still runs the DW.   We'll keep you informed. Thanks for everything.    Don Davis, Head Football Coach, Martin High School, Laredo, TEXAS   *********** GEORGIA: COLUMBIA (Decatur) 40, LAKESIDE 7   *********** Hey Coach, We fell to a tough Villa Grove team 6-0 tonight. We gave up a big play early in the 2nd quarter and played decent defense after that. I remember something you said once: "Winning conceals, Losing reveals" That certainly rings true for us. We have to try to get better from this loss against a quality team. We moved the ball between the 20's all night but couldn't seem to punch it in the end zone. Next week we play Tri-Valley, who is 1-2 on the season. We need to win this one to still have a shot at a post-season berth.   Mike Benton, Ridgeview High School, Colfax, Illinois   *********** Coach: Crystal Lake Central had a tough win last night 35-28 (over Dundee Crown).  We are very proud and lucky to be 3-0.  The offense rushed for 444 yards with B Back Anthony Degani pounding for three touchdowns and 232 yards.  A Back Anthony Niemo carried for 150 yards while QB Connor Buxton and C Back Brett Unger picked up timely first downs when called upon.  Our guards really stepped it up today and sprung the traps for big yards.  We have rushed for over 1,200 yards in three games with three juniors in the backfield so I am cautiously excited about this group.  The next two weeks we play playoff caliber teams and a state ranked team so it is the next test this offense needs.  Hope all is well.    Bill Lawlor, Offensive Coordinator, Crystal Lake Central HS, Crystal Lake, Illinois   *********** Hi Coach, I hope all is going well with you. We won our opener this past Saturday 22-20 against a larger opponent that beat us last year 33-13. We drove the ball 60 yards with 3:35 remaining. We worked the clock and scored with 55 seconds left.   This week we play Metuchen HS. They have a wide receiver that is 6'5 and is a NJ sprint champ. He received a full ride to U. of Oklahoma.   Our best defense is the DW. We will need to run it perfectly this week.   I would love to receive the newsletter.   Thanks,   Dave DeNapoli, Dunellen HS, Dunellen, New Jersey   *********** Coach, I thought things were going to go very well for us Friday when we recovered a fumble on the third play and then scored on our first (criss cross). Unfortunately, we played very, very poorly defensively and their wishbone just pounded us up and down the field. Still, we went into halftime down just 14-8. There weren't lots of adjustments to be made,at least not from a technical standpoint. The adjustments that needed to be made were desire, intensity, pride, etc. Well, we played "Trojans Football" in the second half. Pretty much ran 88/99 Super Power and 3 trap at 2 and did it WITH AN ATTITUDE. We walked away with a 22-14 victory and a lesson in what it means to dig deep. We're now 2-1.   Todd Hollis, Head Football Coach, Elmwood-Brimfield Coop, Elmwood, Illinois   *********** NEW YORK - We picked up a win last night 37-6 over rival Elba.   We were not sharp in the first half.  We opened up in Slot and scored, but I think it was a mistake - as it delayed me getting a good read on what defense they were playing.  We stopped them and then we gave them the ball at our 25 on a red red that hung up there.   They scored but missed the PAT.  We then drove the field and stalled out on a 4th and 1 (88 G reach - mishandled handoff by the QB).   But our defense recorded a safety.   We got the ball back and went 3 and out and punted.  We had them pinned deep in their own territory and scored a defensive TD on a fumble recovery.  We went into the half up 16 - 6, but I was pretty steamed at the O-line for sloppy play.  Second half we get the ball and drive 16 plays 90 yards and over 8 min. of the third quarter with no run over 12 yards and score a TD.  I have somehow strayed from 6/7-G somewhat over the last few years (don't know why - but we haven't had tremendous success with it lately so I havent gone to it a lot).  Nonetheless our B back ran 6-7 G till the cows came home.  He may have had 3 carries on traps in the first half, but he had 15 in the second and at least 10 of them were on G.  B back Cody Doran finished with 18 carries for 102 and 2 TDs (as well as the defensive TD).   A back Tucker smart had 14 for 58 and C back Brad Riner finished with 12 for 85 and a TD.  As a team we finished with 56 carries for 300 yards and 4 TDs.   John Dowd, Oakfield-Alabama HS, New York   *********** NEW YORK - Kenny Youngs rushed for 119 yards and four touchdowns in 10 carries as Lansingburgh defeated Mohonasen, 42-14.   NyQuan McGirt and Marcus Hepp rushed for 68 first-quarter yards to go with Youngs' 38. as the KNights ooutgained their Mohonasen 106-1 in the first quarter.   After just two games, Lansingburgh has rushed for 800 yards.   *********** NORTH CAROLINA - South Mecklenburg 47, Olympic 10   By HERB WHITE - Charlotte Observer   South Mecklenburg's climb to respectability has taken another step forward.   The Sabres' 47-10 win against Olympic on Friday gives South Meck (2-1) its first winning streak in coach James Martin's two seasons. For a program that has struggled in recent seasons, South Meck is moving in the right direction.   "That was a long-term plan," Martin said. "You can't do it in one year. It's baby steps and the kids understand what we want and tonight we executed."   From opening kickoff to final whistle, the Sabres dominated in every phase. The offense, as usual, revolved around a bruising rushing attack that piled up 396 yards on 42 carries. Fullback Spencer Shuey punched in three scores and tailback Tim Palmer rolled up 182 yards on 16 carries.   "It was fairly simple," Palmer said. "The line did great, the holes were there and everyone ran hard. It was great."   With the running game humming, quarterback Jey Yokeley took advantage of his rare opportunities to pass, completing 4-of-5 for 100 yards and a 40-yard scoring strike to Colton Cariaga. The Sabres led 21-3 after the first quarter and forced Olympic (1-2) to play catch-up. One of the few bright spots for the Trojans was sophomore quarterback Lucas Beatty (16-of-30 for 176 yards and a score), but South Meck was too strong too often.   "We passed here and there, but the run set it up," Palmer said. "It's smash-mouth football, that's all."   South Meck's defense did its share, too, forcing a pair of interceptions and shutting out Olympic in the second half after taking a 28-10 lead into the break. The difference between last season and this, Martin said, is experience and leadership on both sides of the ball.   "We keep talking about execution," Martin said. "Last year hurt us a lot when we didn't execute at the right time and this year, we said there's no excuses. We've just got to get the job done."   (After dropping the opener in 2 OTs to highly-ranked Charlotte Catholic, South Meck has rushed for nearly 1000 yards in the last two games. Passing efficiency? Jey Yokeley is now 9 for 10 for three TDs and 200+ yards. And - he has run for more than that. HW)   *********** Sacred Heart (Saline, KS) 44, Beloit 38 (2 OTs) - Cas Spangler carried 18 times for 324 yards, including three touchdowns of 65 yards or more, and Jace Sporleiter carried 17 for 120, as the Beloit Trojans rushed for nearly 500 yards - and lost. In two overtimes.   Sacred Heart's Connor Martin completed 31 of 43 passes for 397 yards, with six touchdowns and no interceptions.   *********** Coach Wyatt, I want to give you an update on how things are going at Trinity H.S. We are currently at 53 players with only 16 returnees. Only one player has quit on day 2 and we are progressing quite well. We have 20 Freshmen out of 52 boys enrolled in the Freshmen class.   Last week we opened against Bishop Brady H.S. the defending N.H. Champs in Division 5. Behind 20-8 at the half we stormed back with 37 unanswered points in the second half for a 45-20 victory. The Double Wing attack went for 251 yards rushing and 1-2 passing with an 11 yard T.D. pass.   We will continue as an independent this year and join a league based on our enrollment next season. The team is buying in and I am very pleased that I took the job. The staff has been fantastic and are working hard to learn the DW. I can assure you we could not get this done with a conventional offense. Take care.   John Trisciani, Trinity H.S., Manchester, New Hampshire   Happy days for Trinity By MARC THALER New Hampshire Union Leader Sports   TRINITY HIGH of Manchester may finally be on the road to respectability.   The journey officially began Saturday night at Gill Stadium. Trinity scored a spirited 45-20 comeback win against defending Division V champion Bishop Brady of Concord. The Pioneers erased a 12-point halftime deficit, scoring 37 unanswered second-half points.   Lado Pitia started the second-half surge, scooping a fumble and running 35 yards for the defensive touchdown. Carl Braley capped three consecutive offensive possessions with TDs. Tyrell Skinner added two TDs on the night, one courtesy of Ryan Royce-Cloney's 11-yard toss.   As a team, Trinity rushed for 287 yards -- 217 after halftime.   First-year head coach John Trisciani, a former Manchester Memorial assistant coach and 1978 Trinity grad, said the postgame atmosphere was something to remember. The players, cheerleaders and fans were all "fired up."   "The whole scene was like they won the World Series," Trisciani said yesterday during a hiatus from watching game film. "That's the best way I can describe it. They haven't seen much winning."   Trinity -- tiny by comparison to its former Division I opponents in terms of school enrollment -- dropped from the large-school ranks to play an independent schedule in 2007. In the last three years alone, Trinity struggled mightily in D-I: three consecutive 0-9 seasons. Average margin of defeat in those divisional contests: 29.9 points.   The program was 1-29 overall during that span. Its only win was a 17-8 decision last season against first-year D-II program Goffstown, which bumped up from D-III.   Though Trinity returned just four starters and 16 players overall in '07, Trisciani said preseason camp was positive. He built a 53-man roster that includes 20 freshmen. In '06, the Pioneers fielded three ninth-graders.   Still, it's hard for the players to ignore the chatter regarding Trinity's decision to drop from D-I, Trisciani said. So the head coach simply repeats the message he delivered on Day 1 of the preseason.   "It doesn't matter what division they're playing in. I tell them they have nothing to be ashamed of, playing schools with the same enrollment," Trisciani said. "They're eager to learn and eager to please. - I myself could not be happier that I took this job."   Judging by Saturday's hysteria, quite a few folks are happy Trisciani -- currently coaching the freshman, JV and varsity teams -- is at the helm.   "It's important right now for me to have a finger on what's going on, for them to get a dose of me," he said. "And for them to realize they are all important to me."   NOTE: Not long after the page was updated,"Coach Trish" wrote to inform me that Trinity is now 2-0:   Hi Coach,   Trinity H.S. 24  Newport H.S. 0. We dominated the clock rushing for 251 yards. Passed for a 28 yard T.D. on a halfback pass for the first T.D. We did get stopped on 4th and short twice which I wasn't happy about. Three touchdowns and 2 point conversions was enough to win. I have been questioned on why we don't kick PAT'S. My answer is " as long as we have an opportunity for 2 points we are going after it." Best wishes. Trish    *********** From Jody Hagins, in Summerville, South Carolina, moving to 8-man football in his first head coaching job-   After losing the first two games, I wasn't sure it would happen. The first two games were riddled with penalties. We lost our second game, 22-14, but we had a penalty on over 20-percent of our offensive plays. It was extremely frustrating. We rushed for more yards in the first half (149) than they had total offense for the entire game, yet we still lost.   We had a first-and-goal at the two. Two penalties, and an over-the-head snap later, we gave them the ball back at the 27   Fast forward to our game last night. I thought last night would start the same way. Two back-to-back block-in-the-back penalties on the first drive. However, we didn't have any more penalties on offense, and we didn't have a single bad snap. We rushed 55 times for 438 yards, and were 1/3 passing for 43 yards, with one interception.   We were down 0-6 at the end of the first quarter, and scored for the first time with 8 minutes left in the half. They scored again to go up 12-8, then we went ahead for good. We scored 26 points in the second quarter, to take a 26-12 lead into the half.   I only had 3 subs, so for me 2-platoon means my C and power tackle only play offense, and my two defensive tackles only play defense (unless someone is hurt). My third reserve is a freshman, who spells the WB/TB on offense and ILB/OLB on defense. He got lots of game reps in the second half. My WB is new because my starter went out last week with a knee injury. Both he and the frosh finally started to understand the running lane concept.   I've been preaching to them that the mass they see in front of them are THEIR guys. Keep sprinting in the running lane, and the hole will open up... briefly, in front of them. They kept trying to find daylight, only to get tackled by the guy we were kicking out. However, I kept running the same power/WBcounter stuff over and over.   My WB was amazed after a 66 yard TD on WB counter off spinner action. He said, "Coach, you're right. It just opens up." They just need to see it, and then they "get it." At least, I hope they keep getting it.   Our base play is power off-tackle, and my frosh TB keeps trying to find daylight. He finally had the same experience last night of sprinting to the seam and having it open up in front of him.   Thanks for my DW roots. We are unbalanced, and run power only one way. Weak side power just sucks for us. Anyway, we ran power 22 times, wedge 11 times, sweep 11 times, our FB-spinner series 6 times. The rest were a few passes and counters. I ran sweep more than I planned, but they started sqeezing so hard on power, I needed to run it so they would widen back up and make it easier to run power.   They had a true stud who moved to our strong side every play. We'd double team him, kick him out, reach him for sweep, or run wedge inside him. He must have thought we had 20 kids on the field, because he was getting hit from everywhere.   BTW, Wofford College in Spartanburg, SC is not a true split-back veer team, but they run lots of midline and inside veer from their flex-wing setup. They are VERY similar to Air Force of a few years ago. They have a high school coaching clinic every year. It's one of the best experiences, and I eagerly look forward to it. Their staff is top notch. After spending two days with them (including on the field during practice and a scrimmage), I'd have ZERO hesitation sending any kid, including my son, to play for Coach Ayers.   Again, thanks for everything! Jody Hagins, Summerville, South Carolina    *********** Hello Coach Wyatt, I copied this article from the Press& Sun-Bulletin, Binghamton, New York. This was our Varsity Game. The game was on MSG (Madison Square Garden) Network on 9/9/07. I watched it from home. The game was played at the Syracuse Carrier Dome, about 270 miles away from Staten Island. We are all very proud of the Varsity and are ranked 9th in the state as of today. As for my youth team we won 13-0 and everybody asked me, what happened? Am I Supposed to score 30 points every game? (lol) I couldn't go to the Varsity game as I had my own youth game same day.   Mike Rodsky, Staten Island, New York   "Double-wing proves to be double-trouble for Binghamton defense   Patriots allow 437 yards in loss"   SYRACUSE -- St. Joseph by the Sea parlayed 237 yards of offense and three Binghamton turnovers into a landslide of first-half points on its way to a 52-7 drubbing of the Patriots on Sunday in the Carrier Dome.   The Staten Island football squad's well-disciplined, powerful and methodical double-wing offense tore apart Binghamton's defense, turning its first six possessions into points that made for a 37-0 halftime spread.   *********** Many thanks to Dennis Metzger, long-time veer coach and now a HS principal in Fountain City, Indiana for this list of colleges believed to still be running a veer or wishbone-derivative offense.   *********** I was reviewing some of your virtual clinics and noticed you ran 44 base lead (or X lead) out of Omaha (Unbalanced Tight).  As I draw it up on paper I notice that certain alignments cause conflict with the blocking rules.  Of course those alignments have 3 guys in between TE and C (and we wouldn't want to call base lead anyway).  BUT - what if you call it and then the next down they are in one of those defenses????   Coach, That sounds to me like a team that knows that you have gone unbalanced and has a surprise waiting for you at the line of scrimmage.   If I was dumb enough to go unbalanced against a team that was waiting for me with a look like that, I'd take my licking and call another play next time.   I will contend until my dying day that my major reason for going unbalanced is to gain a momentary advantage, and one main way I get that advantage is through the element of surprise.  If I have lost the element of surprise, then the advantage is to the defense, because  if they know what I have done I have no idea what to expect, and it may be an unpleasant surprise for me.   *********** A short manual on how not to recruit:   My grandson, Matt Love, lives in Durham, North Carolina, and he's a good lacrosse player. Not big-time, but pretty good. And his SAT's are HIGH. So of course he's been hearing from the smaller schools with lacrosse programs.   He decided last week to whittle down his list of schools and, in what I consider to be a touch of good manners, emailed coaches to tell them he was no longer interested in their school.   Here was a note he wrote to one coach:   Dear Coach Zazzaro,   Thank you for your interest in me.  However, I have restricted my college search to the South, and that means Colorado College is no longer on my list.   Again, thank you for your interest, and best of luck this season.   Matt Love   And here was the coach's response, to a kid who had the courtesy to write him:   ok   I am not kidding. That's all the guy wrote. Two f--king keystrokes, and no signature. Pure class.     *********** (You wrote) "I still can't believe Gillette is trying to sell razor and blades and shaving cream to football fans using a guy named Thierry Henry whom they introduce as "FOOTBALLER OFF THE YEAR." Hey you fruits in Gillette's advertising department - you're in America now. Over here, he's not a "footballer." He's a f--king soccer player."   Do you think this footballer is a Nike guy? I ask because Tiger is and I thought I heard that Roger Federer is as well...Nike/Gillette partnership?   Also those OSU uniforms were ugly. Does any team have regular stripes on their pants anymore? Seems everyone had these angular swashes down the sides of their pants. What do I know...I actually really like Penn State's uniforms. Maybe it has something to do with where I'm from.   Adam Wesoloski, Pulaski, Wisconsin (I suspect that Tiger Woods, Roger Federer and Thierry Henry have the same agent, and he sold Gillette on a package deal. HW)   *********** Whom do you believe? Do you believe General David Petraeus? Or do you believe Ted (The Lifeguard) Kennedy, Joe (The Plagiarist) Biden and John (The War Hero) Kerry?   It's indeed a sorry day in America when the news media stand by while those moral midgets attack the testimony of a man of true character, a man who epitomizes the West Point motto, "Duty, Honor, Country."   And that was before he even testified.   It's scary, indeed, to think that there are Americans who would trust our security to a party represented by such blowhards, a party whose major fund-raising arm - MoveOn.org - sponsors ads like the one at the left.   *********** Osama bin Laden, looking as if he nearly overdosed on Just For Men, said on his most recent tape that what Americans have to do to stop the war in Iraq is to convert to Islam.   Wrong approach, Osama. Now, if you'd said instead that conversion to Islam would get rid of George Bush, you'd have Democratic politicians washing their feet outside the door of every mosque in Washington, DC.   *********** Coach, I thought it might be time to give you an update on the ageless vitality of your Double Wing.  I bought the tapes (I bet they're on DVD now) and book nine or ten years ago, as I was about to coach my first of many St. Thomas the Apostle 5th/6th and/or 78'ers football teams.  We've won many games since then (about 70% of our games) with both good personnel and bad personnel.  Last year, with a team of mostly 5th graders, your offense allowed us to put more points on the league champion, undefeated, St.Paul/St Stevens team than it had allowed the balance of its season--we took leads into the 2d, 3d and 4th quarters before losing in the last two minutes.  So--my update: we're still running the same 9 plays (we call them "Play 1" or "Play 2", but they're the base 88 power, wedge, 3 trap at 2, 44-C inside reverse, bootleg, tackle trap, seam pass, bootleg pass and roll out pass--I can't even remember your names for half of them anymore).  Every other coach in the league knows the offense, but can't stop it.  So, on Saturday, we opened against Holy Spirit, laid four touchdowns on them pretty quickly before I let the second O play, and at the end of the game a brand new, young coach came up to me and said "that's an incredible offense you run".  I'm sending him your website link this morning.   As I've written in past years: thanks so much for your efforts in sharing this offense.  I haven't visited your website as often as I used to (my older sons turned into teenagers, and some left for college, and they just took a lot more time than I had available--visiting your website has taken a back seat to other pressing needs over the last couple of years), but your legacy lives on in the Grand Rapids Catholic Elementary School Football League.    (One other note, my left guard has difficulty with school work, is being raised by a grandmother whose daughter dropped the boy off for a life of jail, drugs, etc., and had, until his first year in football last year, no confidence.  Because of your offense, he's had the opportunity to have required of him (1) blocking rules memorization, and (2) blocking rules applications on the fly.  His teachers and the school custodian tell me he's a much more confident boy this year.  Needless to say, if he were just thrown on to a line and told to "block the guy in front of you" [i.e., a lineman's job on most youth offenses], rather than being given the privilege of being a key component in a sophisticated youth offense, he might not consider himself as having accomplished anything.)   Hope all is well with you.   Jim Ens. LAW, WEATHERS & RICHARDSON, P.C., Grand Rapids, Michigan   *********** The TV cameras love to show us the painted jackasses at NFL games, while high schools say, "Thanks a lot."   So the North Carolina High School Athletic Association has banned body painting during regular-season games. It had already done so for playoff games, after paint smeared upholstery at rented facilities, not to mention "parties who didn't want paint on them."   Small face decorations ("puppy feet on your face," as one administrator put it) are okay. Otherwise, those with painted bodies will be asked to remove it, cover it, or leave.   Those who refuse to comply will be told, said the administrator, "we hope you enjoyed the part of the game you saw."   All football programs are invited to participate in the Black Lion Award program. The Black Lion Award is intended to go to the player on your team "Who best exemplifies the character of Don Holleder (see below): leadership, courage, devotion to duty, self sacrifice, and - above all - an unselfish concern for the team ahead of himself." The Black Lion Award provides your winner with a personalized certificate and a Black Lions patch, like the one worn at left by Army's 2005 Black Lion, Scott Wesley, and at right by Army's 2006 Black Lion, Mike Viti. There is no cost to you to participate as a Black Lion Award team. FOR MORE INFORMATION   ALL NEW! CST's Feature Story on the Black Lion Award BECOME A BLACK LION TEAM GIVE THE BLACK LION AWARD TO ONE OF YOUR PLAYERS! Will Sullivan, Army's 2004 Black Lion wore his patch (awarded to all winners) in the Army-Navy game (FOR MORE INFO) The Black Lion certificate is awarded to all winners   Take a look at this, beautifully done by Derek Wade, of Sumner, Washington --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Yy6iA_6skQ

The End of Holding? Could it Be? (See"NEWS") Did You Laugh As Hard As I Did at Lou Holtz' "Pep Talk?" (See"NEWS") "Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold. For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it." (Proverbs, Chapter 8, Verses 10-11)   September 7, 2007 -   "Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock." Will Rogers   ALL NEW! CST's Feature Story on the Black Lion Award   Back in the spring, following the Chicago clinic, I took part in a "Ride-along" with a team of plainclothes Chicago policemen. Click on the "Chicago Police" seal to read more about it and see some exclusive photos, shown only on "News You Can Use"     *********** I recently launched a free e-mail newsletter, aimed specifically at those of you who love and respect the game the way it's seldom seen on TV these days, and still believe that it's possible to play football other than the way the NFL plays it. The second issue went out this past week. To get on the mailing list, e-mail me your name, location and e-mail address at: oldschoolfootball@mac.com (your information will never be given to anyone else)   LATE UPDATE- Coach Wyatt, I want to give you an update on how things are going at Trinity H.S. We are currently at 53 players with only 16 returnees. Only one player has quit on day 2 and we are progressing quite well. We have 20 Freshmen out of 52 boys enrolled in the Freshmen class.   Last week we opened against Bishop Brady H.S. the defending N.H. Champs in Division 5. Behind 20-8 at the half we stormed back with 37 unanswered points in the second half for a 45-20 victory. The Double Wing attack went for 251 yards rushing and 1-2 passing with an 11 yard T.D. pass.   We will continue as an independent this year and join a league based on our enrollment next season. The team is buying in and I am very pleased that I took the job. The staff has been fantastic and are working hard to learn the DW. I can assure you we could not get this done with a conventional offense. Take care.   John Trisciani - Trinity H.S.- Manchester, New Hampshire   *********** In the 2005 NFL season, there were 880 offensive holding calls. In 2006, there were only 579.   That's a 34 per cent reduction.   Wow. At that rate, we could see the end of holding in our lifetime!   What;s going on here?   It's got to be coaching. The NFL coaches, sick of all the calls, insisted that their players stop holding, and, by golly, the players responded.   Either that, or the league officials got their orders from Big Football to cut down on the holding calls by a third.   Hee, hee. What do you think?   *********** Fred Goldsmith was head coach at Duke from 1994-1998. He's the last coach to take Duke to a bowl game. His overall record was 17-39. In the last 20 years, Duke has had seven head coaches, and only Steve Spurrier won more games than he did. But after he went 4-7 in 1998, the new AD - the guy who's still there, the one on whose watch the so-called Duke Rape case took place - let him go. If only the Duke people could have known the turn things would take. If only they could have foreseen how good 17-39 would look. How good 4-7 would look. It's been eight years since Coach Goldsmith was cashiered, and in that time, Duke has yet to match his win output. The Devils have gone 12-79 under his two successors, with three winless seasons. Only once have they matched the four wins that cost Coach Goldsmith his job.   Aftr leaving Duke, Coach Goldsmith took a high school coaching job in Franklin, North Carolina, until he returned to the college game this season as head coach at Lenoir-Rhyne College, a Division II school in North Carolina.   And now he's in for the kind of game that has to remind him of getting his Duke teams ready to play Florida State.   He's getting his kids ready to go to play Appalachian State, fresh off the Mountaineers' win over Michigan.   He knows quite well what he's getting into. He and Appalachian State coach Jerry Moore coached together on the Arkansas staff years ago, and in recent years, Coach Moore would frequently visit him at Franklin High School.   "Jerry's such a hard worker, he does a lot of personal recruiting," Goldsmith said. "When I was at Franklin, he'd come over and look at some film and I'd tell him about a kid at another high school and he'd get in the car and go drive 70 miles to visit that kid. He beats the bushes. And they were going to fire the guy a couple years ago."   Asked if he was surprised by Appalachian Styate's "upset" of Michigan, Coach Goldsmith replied, "Appalachian State had more speed than Michigan and so, no, I wasn't surprised."   Trying to prepare for Appalachian State's speed, he said, "It's a little like when I was at Duke and we were preparing for some of those Florida State teams. You can match the Xs and the Os but you cannot match some of the speed."   He spole in glowing terms of Appachian State QB Armanti Edwards: "He's quick. And sometimes they run that triple option, out of the shotgun, like West Virginia. I told people how fast Appalachian was when I'd watch them practice last season. They have more speed than half the Division I teams. Ohio State's Troy Smith won the Heisman Trophy last year but he's not as quick as Edwards."   Ironically, when Goldsmith was at Duke, he refused to play Appalachian State.   "When I was at Duke," he said, " I told Jerry I'd play Western Carolina, but I wouldn't play Appalachian."   *********** An friend who chooses anonymity (perhaps he works with some Notre Dame people):   How is it that every spring we're told that ND had one of the nation's top recruiting classes, then after they're second loss or latest bowl beating, we're told that they just don't have the kind of talent other schools have nor can they recruit "those kind of players"   *********** Hi Coach. I had the opportunity to take attend the Wisconsin-WSU game Saturday and when a commercial for the Big11Ten Network came across the scoreboard the fans "booed" loudly. BTW, if you ever have the chance to see a game at Camp Randall please do so. What a wonderful college atmosphere.   Adam Wesoloski - Pulaski, Wisconsin   *********** Hello Coach,   I read your article on the veer offense.  My son, who is in high school, plays QB in a veer offense.  I was wondering, where would I go to look for colleges which are veer oriented in order to start a list schools for my son to take a look at?   Thanks   The sad fact is that there aren't any colleges at the Division I level running the veer. I don't know about Division II. There probably are some at the Division III - non-scholarship - level   For the most part, the Veer, like the Wishbone and the Wing-T, has been swept aside in favor of the more pro-oriented offenses that (1) enhance the recruitment of players who think they're going to play in the NFL some day and (2) improve the career prospects of college coaches who want to find another job if (more likely when) they get fired from the one they now have.   In Division IA, Navy runs a wishbone-based option attack from a spread formation. In Division IAA, Rhode Island does, too.   I'm afraid that's all I know of, but maybe there are some readers who can help.   *********** Coach, A brief review of last week's HS games in Georgia revealed that 40 teams failed to score a single point and the score of one other game was 3-0. Our local HS team had 10 yards of total offense in the first half. We are talking about a school with over 100 kids in the program and they cannot find 11 kids that can move a football. Of course it must be the players fault as no school in their right mind would pay a football coach an $80,000.00 a year salary if he did not know how to run an offense. I wrote the coach and offered my services, so far no response. Heck, let the kids write up their own plays in the dirt and they should be able to move the ball more than 10 yards.   By the way, did you catch the Bobby Bowden interview where he said that the big shake up of the coaching staff at FSU was not his idea, but what certain people (the boosters) wanted. Coach Bowden was vilIfied last year by the "fans". If only some of them were old enough to remember what FSU football was like before Coach Bowden came to FSU.   Hi to Connie. Richard Cropp, Brunswick, Georgia (You didn't really think that a big-time high school coach would ever be interested in a "lazy-man's" offense like the Double Wing, did you? This is the Twenty-First Century, and everybody knows that old stuff doesn't work! Why, he'd be ostracized by all the "modern" coaches at next winter's clinics. And as for Ole Bobby - who would have thought, just a few years ago, when they were calling for Joe Paterno's head and Bobby was riding high, that things would do a complete flip-flop? HW)   *********** The explosion of games on TV has resulted in an incredible number of untalented play-by-play guys who think they're still doing radio ("He's to the forty... the thirty-five... thirty..."), former players badly in need of diction lessons, and sideline bimbos who sound like Miss Teen South Carolina.   Coach Wyatt,   I've also noticed the PA guys who use this technique at youth, as well as high school games.  We're AT the game.  We're WATCHING the game.  We don't need someone to say, "Falcons lining up in a spread formation at the thirty-five yard line.  The ball is snapped!  The quarterback fades back...he's handing off....to the runner!  And he's running!  He's around the end!  He's running!  Still running! And ohhhhh, he's tackled!  What a good hit!"   Why in the world do PA guys think they're supposed to be play-by-play guys (and really bad ones) at events where we can see the action?!   Whatever happened to LESS is MORE? Dave Potter, Durham, North Carolina (I got the video from the Pop Warner Super Bowl, and that's exactly what you hear - the pA announcer saying, "They give the ball to Number five, and he's across the 40. Tackled by number 45." It's downright comical. As you say, it's not as if he's telling us anything we can't see. HW)   PS: Read your news re: Coach Prince wearing a Black Lion pin.  What the heck?!  I need to get me one of those!  Where can I find one?   Good question! Send check or money order for $5.25 each (ask for the lapel pin) to:   28th Infantry Association PO Box 6033 Springfield VA 22150-6033   *********** Oscar Ponce de Leon could also use the "infection from being wounded by an arrow" excuse for being late.. LOL   (Old 5th grade teacher of social studies here)... Brad Knight, Clarinda, Iowa   *********** Hugh, The Elmwood/Brimfield Trojans had a tough Week 1 versus Pittsfield.  Following a two-and-a-half hour bus ride to Pittsfield, the Saukees unveiled their new spread offense and took advantage of us being on our heels.  Shame on us as coaches.  We planned for the veer that they've run in the past.  We planned wrong.  The Trojans fell 34-14.   We turned things around Friday night with one of those "good medicine" games that you need from time to time.  We beat Galva 52-0 (halftime score).  Michael Welch rushed six times for 208 yards and six touchdowns.  He had two receptions for 53 yards, one of those a touchdown.  Travis Winkelmann had 101 yards on eight carries.  Our offense played defense and our defense played offense in the second half.  So, everyone got a full game and some good experience despite playing a lesser opponent.  The brightest spot to the whole game was our kids maintained their intensity when they very easily could have taken the second half off.   The Trojans football team is doing a season-long fundraising drive for Easter Seals.  We are touring the local facility today.  I'm wondering if any coaches who read your News do similar charitable events with their team and if they would like to share notes, ideas, whatever.   Good luck to everyone this week.   Todd Hollis, Head Football Coach, Elmwood-Brimfield Coop, Elmwood, Illinois   *********** The entire Oregon State fall camp has been a soap opera. Will star receiver/return man Sammie Stroughter play or won't he? He was said to be grieving over the loss of some relatives and the death of an assistant coach- it's all been kind of secretive, and university officials told the news media not to ask him any questions - and missed most of the practices. It was not unlike a holdout.   But the Beavers go to Cincinnati, and on the first play of the game Stroughter drops a pass that would have put the Beavers inside the Cincinatti 20.   And early in the second half, standing on his own five yard line, he fumbles a fair catch attempt. Yes, he was hit and the officials didn't call it. But he had no business making a fair catch there, anyhow.   A little over a year ago, nice guy Mike Riley's lack of discipline seemed ready to sink him, until magically he got his act together. Now, giving so much significant game action to a guy who had skipped most of the practices, and watching the guy hurt the team, you have to wonder if the old nice guy is back.   *********** So what did you think of those darling orange sports bras that the Nike folks designed for Oregon State's football uniforms?. Actually, considering that Nike was founded by Oregon guys, I think it's a trick to make Oregon State look silly. Because Nike would never design uniforms that would make Oregon look silly.   *********** Did anybody catch that ludicrous "pep talk" that Lou Holtz gave on ESPN at halftime of the Louisville game, the one he would give if he were the coach of Michigan? It was full of the usual cliches about our having eyes in front of our heads instead of the back so that we could look ahead instead of look back. Wow. I'm fired up. Open that locker room door before I run through it.   Actually, if I thought it really mattered, I'd say, "Hey, A**hole - Not everybody feels sorry for Michigan. Oregon's playing Saturday, too."   Really, though, about all Lou Holtz could do for Michigan if he really were its coach would be to win some games and then move on and leave them on probation.   *********** I still can't believe Gillette is trying to sell razor and blades and shaving cream to football fans using a guy named Thierry Henry whom they introduce as "FOOTBALLER OFF THE YEAR." Hey you fruits in Gillette's advertising department - you're in America now. Over here, he's not a "footballer." He's a f--king soccer player.   *********** Last Saturday wife and I were watching football on two side-by-side TVs when we heard the announcer on the one we were not focusing on say one of those things that you'll only hear in the West, where people say "Footbahl", instead of "Footbawl," and "hawk" is pronounced "hock."   We swore we heard the guy say, "prostate rivalry."   And then I looked over at the other set, where Colorado was playing Colorado State, and I realized that he'd said, "Cross-state rivalry."   Many years ago, when I lived in Baltimore, we were having lunch and watching the World Series (yes, they once played it on weekdays, during the day) in a bar on Eastern Avenue. The late great Curt Gowdy was doing the play-by-play. Gowdy was a native of Wyoming, and so he pronounced "hawk" as "hock, " and and he happened to mention when this one guy came to bat that in the off-season he liked to go hunting with a crossbow.   The barmaid, paying only peripheral attention to the game, heard that and looked at us and said, with a puzzled look on her face, "crotchbow?"   *********** NOW THAT WE HAVE THE FCS AND THE FBS TO GO ALONG WITH THE BCS, ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE THE WTF:   MICHIGAN MAY HAVE FALLEN OUT OF THE TOP 25, BUT IT STILL GOT MORE VOTES THAN THIS WEEK'S OPPONENT, OREGON IN THE COACHES POLL, EVEN THOUGH OREGON BEAT A GOOD HOUSTON TEAM, 48-27. WTF?   MICHIGAN NEARLY CAME BACK TO SURVIVE AN UPSET, YET FELL FROM FIFTH IN THE PRESEASON POLL CLEAR ON OUT OF THE TOP 25; TEXAS, MEANWHILE, NARROWLY SURVIVED A NEAR-UPSET BY ARKANSAS STATE (WHICH PROBABLY COULD NOT BEAT APPALACHIAN STATE), BUT STILL REMAINS IN THE TOP 10... WTF?   BILL CALLAHAN, NOW IN HIS FOURTH SEASON AT NEBRASKA, IS 23-15. THAT'S A PERCENTAGE OF .605 - OKAY, BUT NOT UP TO NEBRASKA'S STANDARDS. THE OLD NEBRASKA, THAT IS. THE OLD NEBRASKA THAT FIRED FRANK SOLICH, WHO HAD A .753 RECORD IN SIX YEARS (58-19), BECAUSE THE NEW AD SAID "WE CAN DO BETTER." REALLY? CALLAHAN WILL HAVE TO AVERAGE 12 WINS AND 1.5 LOSSES OVER THE NEXT THREE SEASONS TO EVEN MATCH SOLICH'S RECORD. (ANYBODY WANNA MAKE ANY BETS ON THAT?) YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THE AD THREW OUT MORE THAN 40 YEARS OF NEBRASKA'S WINNING HERITAGE, A CONTINUOUS PASSAGE OF THE TORCH FROM DEVANEY TO OSBORNE TO SOLICH, FOR THIS? AND NOW, TO ADD INSULT TO INJURY, HE ANNOUNCES THIS WEEK THAT CALLAHAN HAS JUST BEEN GIVEN A 5-YEAR EXTENSION WORTH $1.75 MILLION A YEAR? FIVE MORE YEARS, HUSKERS. MARK MY WORDS - ONE OF THESE DAYS HE'LL BE DRIVING OUT OF LINCOLN IN A BRINKS TRUCK FULL OF SEVERANCE MONEY. WTF?   THE INFLUENCE OF THE PRESEASON POLL CAN BE SEEN IN THE WAY THE BIG DOGS HOLD ONTO THEIR RANKINGS, REGARDLESS OF THE QUALITY OF THEIR OPPONENTS, AS LONG AS THEY WIN BY A SUFFICIENT MARGIN. USC IS STILL NUMBER ONE BECAUSE.. WELL, BECAUSE USC WAS NUMBER ONE IN THE PRESEASON POLL. NOT EVEN A DESULTORY ( BE GLAD YOU DIDN'T STAY UP TO WATCH IT, BACK ON THE EAST COACH ) 38-7 WIN OVER IDAHO COULD TOPPLE THEM. MAINLY, THAT'S BECAUSE NO ONE ELSE IN THE TOP TEN WAS DOING ANYTHING THEY CLOULD BE VERY PROUD OF, EITHER. CAL, MEANWHILE, THUMPED A QUALITY OPPONENT IN TENNESSEE, AND BARELY MOVED UP, FROM 12TH TO 1OTH. WHO'S KIDDING WHO(M) - IF THERE'D BEEN NO PRE-SEASON POLL, AND THIS WERE THE FIRST ONE TAKEN, CAL MIGHT VERY WELL BE NUMBER ONE, BASED ON ITS CONVINCING WIN OVER BY FAR THE TOUGHEST OPPONENT FACED BY ANYBODY ELSE IN THE CURRENT TOP 10. WTF?   FOOTBALL ISN'T BOXING, WHERE THE THE REFEREE CAN STOP THE FIGHT WHEN IT GETS OUT OF HAND. SOMEBODY SHOULD HAVE STOPPED OKLAHOMA AND LOUISVILLE, WHICH HAD WEAK OPPONENTS AGAINST THE ROPES AND KEPT SWINGING AWAY. NOT THAT YOU YOU CAN REALLY BLAME OKLAHOMA AND LOUISVILLE, AFTER THE WAY THE POLLS REWARDED THEM FOR THEIR DUBIOUS ACHIEVEMENTS. OKLAHOMA PUT 79 POINTS ON NORTH TEXAS AND FOR THIS GREAT ACCOMPLISHMENT WAS MOVED UP FROM EIGHT TO SIXTH. WHILE LOUISVILLE JUMPED FROM 11TH TO EIGHTH, ON THE STRENGTH OF THE 73 POINTS THEY HUNG ON MURRAY STATE. WTF?   DO THE VOTERS GET A DO-OVER ON LOUISVILLE, AFTER THE WAY THE CARDINALS STRUGGLED AGAINST MIDDLE TENNESSEE? 35 POINTS IN ONE HALF AGAINST THE NUMBER EIGHT TEAM? WTF?   *********** A nice article in the the Hill Country Community Journal, Kerrville, Texas, about Pete Vann, who was so difficult to replace as Army quarterback that Coach Earl Blaik decided to switch All-America end Don Holleder to quarterback. Vann's studies required him to remain at West Point an extra year, and at Blaik's request he helped Holleder, who had been his favorite receiver, make the transition to quarterback.   By Bonnie Arnold, Staff Writer   Peter Vann of Kerrville was a celebrated quarterback at his high school in Hamburg, N.Y., when his team was undefeated for two years in a row.   "I entered West Point on July 3, 1951," Vann said. "I was scouted by many colleges when I was a senior and chose West Point. There was no military in my family, so it wasn't that. On my visit to West Point, I saw a coach on the field named Vincent T. Lombardi."   Vann said West Point and Coach Earl Blaik had hired Lombardi away from St. Cecelia High School in Patterson, N.J., in 1949 to be Army's backfield coach. His first year, the Army football team was 9-0 and the second year, 8-1.   Then in 1951, West Point expelled 83 cadets in a cheating scandal, Vann said, and 43 of them were on the first, second and third football teams for the academy.   "When I visited the school and went to the football field to try out, it went well and Vince Lombardi took my hand and said, 'You come to West Point and I'll make you a great quarterback.' That was very meaningful to me," Vann said.   "Coach Blaik said of Vince Lombardi that he was as volatile as a spring storm in the desert. And he was. He could be very 'up' one day and very 'down' the next," he said. "When the cribbing scandal hit, both Vince Lombardi and Coach Blaik were thinking about quitting too. Coach Blaik's son was one of the cadet football players who was expelled. And Gen. Douglas MacArthur convinced Blaik not to leave."   "Every week, wherever in the world he was, MacArthur would call Earl Blaik. He was Blaik's mentor," Vann said.   During Vann's first year on the team, the 1951 season, Army was 2-7 at the end of the season.   In 1952, their record was 4-4-1.   "In 1953, we beat some undefeated teams like Duke and Michigan and Yale. And we were sixth in the nation and first offensively in the nation. They said I led the nation in quarterback passing efficiency and was ranked ninth in the Heismann Trophy voting," Vann said.   He was drawn up in the New York Times by noted cartoonist Pap for a successful left-handed pass that Vann threw in one game.   Vann played under Blaik and Lombardi for two years, and Lombardi left West Point for professional football coaching in 1953. The now-famous coach went to the New York Giants for three years, then to Green Bay, Wisc., and the Packers.   "My last year was 1954, when I was first offensively again," he said. "We were a team of 2,400. As players we were just the Saturday representatives of those 2,400. We were a band of brothers. We protected each other."   The team called Coach Blaik by his military title, Colonel Blaik.   "We had a love-hate relationship with Vince Lombardi and the other coaches. We had endless practice throwing the football, including doing it blind-folded," Vann said. "Lombardi was a master at analyzing opponents from the game films. And he said that New York and Green Bay football was really Army football. It was said that West Point was a stepping stone that could have been a stumbling block for Vince Lombardi. If we'd been losing after '52, who would have looked at Vince Lombardi?"   Vann said while he was at West Point, he also was business manager for the West Point Glee Club, arranging the group's concerts including appearances on the Dave Garroway and Ed Sullivan shows.   Vann's accomplishments include:   *Appearing on the covers of "Sport Magazine" and "Coach and Athlete" in 1954.   *Selected ninth in Heisman Trophy balloting.   *Ranked eighth on total yardage nationally.   *Second team All-American.   *All-East for two years.   *Set eight passing records at West Point.   *NCAA record for most yards per completion.   *Team ranked sixth nationally.   *Team ranked first offensively nationally 1953 and'54.   *Led the nation in quarterback passing efficiency in 1954.   *Led the nation in completion percentage in 1954.   *And Coach Blaik said Vann was the best quarterback.   Vann was in good company while at West Point, with classmates that included Norman Schwarzkopf and later-Ambassador to Portugal Alfred Hoffman Jr.   In 1994, Lombardi's son Vince sent a supporting letter to the College Football Hall of Fame urging consideration of Vann for the honor, if the qualifications were expanded to include second team All-American.   His letter said he considered Vann's contribution a major factor in the senior Lombardi's success at West Point.   Newspaper clippings and magazines in Vann's memorabilia include such descriptions as "Army's aerial weapon," "Army's brilliant field general" and "As Vann goes, so goes the Army."   More recently, in January 2007, Vann was nominated for the Army Sports Hall of Fame.   Vann graduated from West Point with his military commission as a second lieutenant and served in the U.S. Army, all in the continental U.S. His service happened to fall between the Korean War and the build-up in Vietnam.   He was trained as a pilot and jumper. One post was as aide to the commanding general of the 82nd Airborne Division.   "After I left the military, I was working for General Motors in Milwaukee at one point, and Lombardi invited me to a Saturday lunch with the team. And he introduced me to the team and said he wouldn't be there if it wasn't for what we did at West Point," Vann said.   He told another story about West Point, saying at one Army-Navy football game, President John F. Kennedy was on the field at halftime and asked an aide why the Cadet Corps in the stands was only half as big as the Midshipman Corp.   Told that West Point was authorized 2,400 cadets compared to Annapolis' 4,400, JFK said that had to be equalized, and it was.   Vann said his father worked for a bank for 41 years, and that he had a brother who also was athletic.   Vann and his wife Mary were born in the same hospital and met at high school in Hamburg, N.Y. She attended Cornell University and they married in Buffalo 10 days after Vann graduated from West Point.   The couple has three sons and a daughter, and 12 grandchildren ranging in age from 12 to 22 years. Vann said eight are natural and four are adopted Russian orphans.   He said none so far are interested in football, but he plays golf with them. "The Boulder, Colo., kids are into soccer."   (Left) Pete Vann on the cover of Sport Magazine, then the USA's leading sports publication; (Right) Pete Vann, on the left, and Don Holleder, on the right, walk across the West point campus in the fall of 1955; Vann's eligibility was used up after the 1954 season, but he returned and helped Holleder, who had been his favorite receiver, make the switch from end to quarterback   VANN TO HOLLEDER CLICKS AGAIN IN 1954         All football programs are invited to participate in the Black Lion Award program. The Black Lion Award is intended to go to the player on your team "Who best exemplifies the character of Don Holleder (see below): leadership, courage, devotion to duty, self sacrifice, and - above all - an unselfish concern for the team ahead of himself." The Black Lion Award provides your winner with a personalized certificate and a Black Lions patch, like the one worn at left by Army's 2005 Black Lion, Scott Wesley, and at right by Army's 2006 Black Lion, Mike Viti. There is no cost to you to participate as a Black Lion Award team. FOR MORE INFORMATION   ALL NEW! CST's Feature Story on the Black Lion Award BECOME A BLACK LION TEAM GIVE THE BLACK LION AWARD TO ONE OF YOUR PLAYERS! Will Sullivan, Army's 2004 Black Lion wore his patch (awarded to all winners) in the Army-Navy game (FOR MORE INFO) The Black Lion certificate is awarded to all winners   Take a look at this, beautifully done by Derek Wade, of Sumner, Washington --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Yy6iA_6skQ

Kansas State Plays Tough at Auburn! (See"NEWS") Appalachian State over Michigan? There Have Been Bigger Upsets! (See"NEWS") "Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold. For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it." (Proverbs, Chapter 8, Verses 10-11)   September 4, 2007 -   "Nothing is worse than war? Dishonor is worse than war. Slavery is worse than war." Winston Churchill   ALL NEW! CST's Feature Story on the Black Lion Award   Back in the spring, following the Chicago clinic, I took part in a "Ride-along" with a team of plainclothes Chicago policemen. Click on the "Chicago Police" seal to read more about it and see some exclusive photos, shown only on "News You Can Use"     *********** I recently launched a free e-mail newsletter, aimed specifically at those of you who love and respect the game the way it's seldom seen on TV these days, and still believe that it's possible to play football other than the way the NFL plays it. The second issue went out this past week. To get on the mailing list, e-mail me your name, location and e-mail address at: oldschoolfootball@mac.com (your information will never be given to anyone else)   *********** Sir, Thanks for the words of encouragement. Josh Freeman is doing fine. I don't know if you noticed that I wore the Black Lions' pin on my shirt in the game. Apparently, the guys in Iraq noticed, according to LTC Frank's wife.   Go State! Ron Prince, Head Football Coach, Kansas State University   Coach Ron Prince of Kansas State proudly wears his Black Lion pin on national TV, in support of the Black Lions in Iraq. Ian Campbell, K-State's Black Lion, who was notified of his selection just before the game, (Left) during the introduction of the defense, and (Right) Black Lion patch on his shirt, staring down an Auburn offensive lineman   *********** Coach, Got to respect the professionalism and patriotism of K-State. Have you been to a game in Manhattan yet - even before I got to know Coach Prince and his staff, I was impressed with the respect the University and Team show towards our Nation - not common in our universities - the Black Lions are proud to be associated with K-State Football.   We are on the ATTACK in Baghdad.   BLACK LIONS - AASLT Pat (LTC Pat Frank, Battalion Commander of the Black Lions)   *********** Damn tough loss for K-State. Their left tackle just could not block that DE from Auburn. I saw the Black Lion patch! K-State is one of my teams now. Christopher Anderson, Palo Alto, California   In one of the toughest of all football environments, the Wildcats really came to play.  I was so proud of them. And of course I was proud of Ian Campbell, their Black Lion. He was in on a lot of plays. He is a tough dude.   ********** I am quoting some genius named L. C. Johnson, who wrote in the Montgomery Advertiser before Saturday's Auburn-Kansas State game... "the Tigers won't draw 100,000 for the K-State game. They will get about 90,000 and every single one of them will go to the War Eagle Supper Club afterward to, um, talk about the (yawn!) 55-7 win over a few cold beers and hot rock 'n' roll."   If only a**holes who write things like this had to live with their mistakes the way the people they write about do.   *********** Okay, okay. Enough is enough. We all feel horrible about what happened at Virginia Tech, but it's time for the rest of us to leave the people at Virginia Tech alone.   We can't really understand what's going on at a place that mourns in such a way that it even sees fit to memorialize the dirty little bastard who killed all those innocent people. ("He died, too," was the twisted reasoning.)   Leave the rest of us out of that, because we don't understand that thinking.   It was a dreadful thing that happened back in April to good people in a very nice place, and we all feel sad about it. But, with all due respect for the feelings of the folks in Blacksburg - Hokie Nation and We Will Prevail and all that - that doesn't make Virginia Tech "America's team."   *********** Analyst Ed Cunningham will make a statement and then spend the rest of the broadcast trying to prove his point. He's a brilliant coach, too - so brilliant that even though he played center, he knows all about coaching kickers. I actually heard him critiquing the Auburn kicker Saturday night, saying "his leg swing wasn't as natural as it was on the other ones." (The kid had just missed a 53-yard field goal.) He doesn't mind calling out a kid, and despite never having coached himself, he seems never to have seen a coach he didn't feel competent to second-guess. Could there be a more know-it-all, negative, analyst than Ed Cunningham?   Well, yes, as a matter of fact, there could be. His name is James Hasty. I remember him as a player, but Monday was the first I'd ever heard him on TV, and he was brutal. He was all over SMU - especially their players - in their game against Texas Tech. They couldn't do anything right, and he had the answer to all their problems. He was a real motormouth, and like Cunningham, once he got on something he just couldn't let it go, long after he'd made his point.   Listening to him was like listening to some a**hole parent who played a little college ball, standing on the sidelines critiquing youth football players. (And, of course, their coaches.)   *********** Q: Did OU really have to score 79 points? Did that freshman really have to score 5 TDs?   Of course not. To either question. Stoops is a heck of a coach, but at times he sure can be a Richard Cranium.  Louisville also went over 70. There's no excuse for putting that many points on a team that you've brought in to be your punching bag, unless every point you score beyond 45 is scored by a reserve.   *********** A friend asked if Appalachian State over Michigan was the biggest upset in college football history.   And I said, No. Don't buy the hype.  Do not fall into the pit with all the under-30s who think that because it is the most recent of something, it is also the biggest.  Or most important. Or best. Or only. Out of respect for things we may not know about, and in the interest of historical accuracy, it is always safer to say "in recent years" or "in recent memory."   As an example of the sort of hype that results from a lack of knowledge of history - in my lifetime there have been at least ten "Games of the Century."   For upsets every bit as big as Appalachian State (a two-time D-IAA champion, remember) over Michigan, I submit just two games, in both of which there was a lot more at stake than prestige...   Navy's defeat of Army in 1950. Going into the final game of the season for both teams, Army was 8-0 and ranked number 1, with convincing wins over Penn State, Michigan and Penn, and a 7-0 win over Stanford.  Army had shut out five opponents, and given up only four touchdowns all season. Navy, on the other hand, was 2-6, and one of its wins was over Ivy-League Columbia. The usual 100,000 people were on hand to watch Navy win, 14-2.   Oregon State over USC in 1967.  That was one of the great Simpson-era teams at USC. The Trojans would finish 10-1, with out-of-conference wins over Texas, Michigan State and Notre Dame, and a Rose Bowl win over Indiana. (Yes, the Hoosiers, you young whippersnappers!) At the time they came into Corvallis, the Trojans were 8-0, ranked number one, and considered unbeatable. The Beavers were 5-2-1.  Final score: Oregon State 3, USC 0. The members of that Oregon State team live on in OSU lore as the Giant Killers.   Time prevents me from doing any more research on this, but trust me, in the history of college football, there are plenty more, every one at least as big - if not as highly publicized - as Appalachian State over Michigan. Start with a Google search on Centre College Praying Colonels, or Carlisle Indians.   *********** Coach - Had our jamboree this past weekend and I don't usually bore you with info or results from those practice games but our boys did play well.  I did want to share with you an exchange that my son and D coordinator, Zack, had with a coach from the opposing team:   We were on offense and we use a Nike 1305 ball which is black in color and has white stripes.  Our QB likes it because it is very tacky and feels good when he throws it.   We were pounding this team by just running Powers, G plays and traps.   Well their coach comes running over to me and starts yelling, "you are using a black ball and my kids cant see it..we teach them to 'go for the ball'...and they can't go for the ball when they cant see it.  My son Zack says without missing a beat, "Coach my dad has been running this offense for a hundred years...even when I know what the play is, I STILL DON'T KNOW WHERE THE BALL IS.  Believe me coach, it is NOT THE BALL."     I promptly changed balls (just to prove a point) and ran a 47C for a TD.       John Torres, Santa Clarita, California            *********** Why do so many male tennis pros dress and look as if they have been sleeping under bridges?   ************ Hello, My name is ----- ----- and I came across your web while researching the Wishbone offense. I'm doing a paper on the effectiveness of the wishbone offense and I notice that the veer is mention in conjunction with the wishbone.  Is the Veer another name for the Wishbone? If not how are they different?  Thank you   Dear -----,   I get the impression that you are in the very early stages of your research, because it's impossible to understand what the Wishbone is without understanding what the Veer is and how they are related but different.    The Veer is an option-based offense whose invention is credited to Bill Yeoman, who at the time was coaching at the University of Houston.  For that reason, many football people still call it the Houston Veer.   The Wishbone was considered a new, improved way of running the Veer, and its inventor is acknowledged to be Emory Bellard, an assistant to Darrell Royal at the University of Texas.   To do any significant research on the Wishbone, you would have to start with Coach Yeoman and Coach Bellard.   Best wishes, Hugh Wyatt   *********** Washington's Tyrone Willingham knew he had something special in quarterback Jake Locker, and now the nationwide audience that saw the redshirt freshman take Syracuse apart knows, too.   So impressed with Locker were Coach Willingham and his offensive coordinator, Tim Lappano, that they designed an offense to fit his skills. Out went the West Coast offense that Willingham had run at Notre Dame, and in came something that resulted from a visit to West Virginia.   But the offensive change was enveloped in a secrecy that the US military would envy.   The Huskies didn't show the new offense in their spring game or in the one preseason scrimmage open to the public, instead running something more on the order of what they'd been running the past two seasons.   Even in the pregame warmups at Syracuse, the Huskies showed a conventional setup, with Locker under center.   And then in the game they lined him up in the gun and turned him loose, and after a slow start, he proved to be way too much for the Orangemen.   Locker's talent has been no secret. "Coming out of high school, he's the best I've ever seen," said Arizona State head coach Dennis Erickson, who has seen a quarterback or two. (For those who say that you have to spread it out to showcase your quarterback's talent: Locker came out of a Wing-T high school program, whose coach was astute enough to feature his quarterback in his attack.)   It had to be difficult for the Washington coaches to keep Locker under wraps as long as they did. Last season, when the athletic Isaiah Stanback went down, Willingham came under some pressure to take off Locker's redshirt, but despite the slump the Huskies went through, in the long-term interest of the program, he refused to cave.   "Jake's made runs in practice that we couldn't believe," Lappano said. "As coaches, we'd stand there and just look at each other."   *********** I know the Michigan people are feeling bad, and now they have to play Oregon, a bona fide Division I opponent. Division I-A that is.   And yes, Oregon, the Wolverines' opponent this weekend, beat Houston Saturday. And yes, the Ducks put up 48 points. But they had a hell of a time with Houston running back Anthony Alridge, who ran for over 200 yards against them. Alridge (5-7, 175) is really good, but he is no Mike Hart. (I don't think.)   *********** A high school all star game is being promoted by ESPNU, and it will be played in January in Disney World (Disney happens to own ABC and the whole incestuous ESPN family).   Now here's what bothers me about this whorish thing - the whole thing is being driven by the online scouting types - the ones who go online and tell us that this kid is a two-star, this one is a three-star, etc.   They announced on Sunday on ESPNU that 25 of the 60 kids selected have already committed to a college. Say, "selected?" You mean you've already picked your players, or most of them? Doesn't this mean they don't even have to play their senior year? You mean nothing that any of my kids does is going to be good enough to get him a spot in this game?   You do realize, don't you, you coaches out there, that this is all about selecting the kids now, then promoting them all season long in order to build up interest in their game?   In other words, screw your kids.   *********** You've all seen those stupid don't-drink-and-drive PSA's, paid for by your tax dollars. You know the ones -"Sir... Have you been drinking?" and as the guy rolls down his window, some yellow liquid (I have an idea what it is) spills out. Another guy opens his car door and out comes a flood of what I guess is rose wine.   Funny how if it's any other ad, they are so careful - oooooh, so careful - to show a politically-correct mix of whites, blacks, Hispanics and occasionally Asians, male and female.   But in the don't-drink-and-drive PSA's, all the drunk drivers are white males.   Actually, in our part of the country now, an awful lot of the time the state troopers find themselves saying, "Senor..."   *********** Good God - Is there nothing kids won't buy? I saw a 7-on-7 game on TV, and one of the teams' players were outfitted in rugby helmets. As determined as kids nowadays are to look cool, somebody should tell them that even rugby players rarely wear the goofy-looking things that look as if they were stolen from the Carlisle Indians' locker room.   *********** It was Friday night, the first night of football around here. It was still August, and already they were selling 50-50 tickets to raise money for next June's drug-and-alcohol-free graduation party. The amount of money they raise around here to bus kids some place and provide them with one night of enforced sobriety is staggering, running in some cases upwards of $20,000.   *********** My friend Kevin Latham, in Decatur, Georgia, said that he and his fellow coaches in DeKalb County (suburban Atlanta) wore suits and ties to their opening games Friday night in honor of the late Coach Eddie Robinson. (The legendary Coach Rob took great pride in his sideline appearance.)   *********** NEW YORK - Coach - Oakfield-Alabama is 1-0. We won 49-7 tonight (42-7 at the half) over Notre Dame of Batavia. We finished with 46 carries for 432 yards and 6 rushing TD's. A back Tucker Smart (black lion and TE from last year) had 10 for 159 and 2 TD's on 56xx. He also had a 48 yard reception on Liz stop Blue Blue. He also kicked all our xtra points and punts (except the last extra point - we let our backup take one). C back Brad Riner had 11 for 57 and a TD (tough yards) and B back Cody Doran had 3 for 95 and a TD all on 3 Trap @4. Another Dwing QB had a perfect game - Tim Smith had 8 carries for 90 yards and a TD and went 1 for 1 for 48 yards passing. In actuality I called about 6 passes, but Tim took off running on almost all of them. Tim did fumble once when getting sacked and scrambling all over (like a young Randall Cunningham) - BUT he picked the other teams QB and ran it in for a TD as well - so we'll call it even. Next week we play Elba. Hope all is well for you. John Dowd, Oakfield-Alabama, New York   *********** ILLINOIS: Coach Wyatt, The Ridgeview High Mustangs are now 2-0 after a 43-8 win over Blue Ridge. Ridgeview rushed for 500 yards on 50 carries and our QB Derek Powell was 3-6 for 69 yards and a TD. A bit sloppy tonight but we were able to run the ball effectively between the tackles against a one layer defense. 3 trap at 2 was our most explosive play as our B backs accounted for half of rushing yardage.   Next week we play the Villa Grove Blue Devils, a team that returns 9 starters on Offense and defense from last season.   Yours In Football,   Mike Benton, Colfax, Illinois   *********** ILLINOIS: Hugh: Crystal Lake Central defeated Lakes Community last night 28-21.  We did not throw the ball once as we rushed for 428 yards.  A back Anthony Niemo rushed for 169 yards, B Back Anthony Degani rushed for 150 yards and C Back Brett Unger had 70 yards.  No current teachers seem to remember the last time our school was 2-0 to start the season but it probably dates back to the late 1980's or early 1990's.  I am just happy for the kids who have worked their butt off on offense since June.  All the credit goes to the offensive line the last two weeks.  Regards, Bill Lawlor, Crystal Lake, Illinois   *********** KANSAS: Beloit avenged last-year's opening game loss to Russell with a 22-6 win. I was listening to it on the Internet, and on one of Beloit's TDs, a long run, I heard the announcer say two things: (1) Zak Koenig is down; (2) There's a flag on the play.   The announcer went on to say that the penalty was a "chop block - against the defense." Said he'd never heard of that being called against the defense.   I have. Not enough, though. You'll know exactly what happened when I tell you that Zak Koenig is Beloit's B-Back (fullback). Right. They were attacking his knees.   Coach Greg Koenig, Zak's dad, said it went on all night.   Okay. Now that the officials have all that free time after deciding that they're not going to call holding every time they see it, it's time for them to crack down on the cheats who by teaching their defenders to cut blockers are doing the two things the rules are designed to prevent: gain an unfair advantage over the opponent, and endanger the safety of the players.   Is there a lawyer reading this who would be willing to take the case, the first time a player is injured as a result of a coach's teaching illegal tactics, and the officials' ignoring them?   *********** NEW YORK: Lansingburgh 62-7 over Scotia-Glenville... Lansingburgh lead only 16-7 until the closing seconds of the first half. A-back Kenny Youngs  had  13 carries for 239 yds and 2 scores; C-back Nyquan McGirt carried 10 times for 73 yds and a TD. B-Back Marcus Hepp scored 3 TDs.   *********** MAINE - Boothbay Region 24, Livermore Falls 8 - Good Morning Hugh-- Great win for the SeaHawks, a 24-8 victory over the pre-season number one pick in our conference. We had a classic Double Wing night. We held the ball 18 of 24 minutes in the second half and had one 19 play drive starting from the our own 15 yard line and a 15 play drive to end the game on their 4 yard line where we took three knees in a row. We ran 63 plays; 21 Super Powers and threw the ball four times and scored on a 58 Black O/X to our X-end. We also converted a 7-Thunder X corner for a two point conversion. Our young QB completed 3 out of 4 passes. The A back carried the ball 23 Times for 125 yards, The C-Back 20 Times for 84 yards and the B Back 12 times for 64 yards. A real classic DW win and they ran just 28 offensive plays, proving once again what a great defense the DW is -- yes I said defense. A most satisfying win considering the opponent and the expectations for for the season. Jack Tourtillotte, Boothbay Harbor, Maine   *********** NEW YORK - Corning West 28, Dryden 6. Travis McGowan rushed for 117 yards, including a 61-yard TD, and Austin Norvel rushed for 83 yards, with a 44-yard TD.   *********** On one of those made-for-TV high school games, I heard the coach of an Ohio Catholic school say he told his seniors at halftime, "You seniors made the decision to come here four years ago, and now I want you to make the decision to play hard..."   I wanted to say, uh, coach - at $10,000 a year tuition (that's what we were told it was), I have a feeling that somebody besides those kids made that decision four years ago.   *********** Coach - Unlike my city (which tore down its historic Manning Bowl), the people of Newburyport are bustin' there Ass to raise Funds to Salvage there WPA Stadium War Memorial ( maybe the one of the Best H.S. Stadiums in the state ).   http://restoreourstadium.com/index.htm   The Sports Editor of the Local paper wants the New 4000 seat Manning "Field" to still be called Manning Bowl,( It will still be named After the Former Mayor of Lynn Fredrick Manning ) though it is no longer a Bowl, but just another ordinary Cookie cutter High School Field. Because as he claims it is still located in the same spot Dancewicz, Agganis, Thurman & Jauron once played at. Where was the objection when they were tearing down the real McCoy ?   John Muckian, Lynn, Massachusetts   I thought of you when the city of Roanoke, Virginia decided to tear down its historic old stadium, where  John Unitas and Sonny Jurgensen once faced each other in an exhibition game.   ***********  (This question comes from a coach who has been highly successful over the last several seasons). We have had little success running the counter for the last two seasons. It just seems like teams really sit on and look for that counter play.  It could be because they have all seen us run it for the past 7 years here.  What do you think?   A defense can be set up to stop any play we have - maybe any two or even three. But my philosophy is that it can't stop them all. But just as a defense can't stop everything you've got, it simply isn't reasonable to expect everything we have to be there all the time. I suspect that your counters may not be so successful is that people are overdefending then, which is why your other stuff is going.     *********** I have managed to make it this far without ever having used this meaningless phrase "back in the day" that has slipped into usage among the illiterates on sports talk shows, and I think I will be able to make it the rest of the way without doing so.   *********** It was fairly later developing, as traditional rivalries go, and it's sort of flown under the radar of the major-market people and fans on both coasts, but Colorado-Colorado State has produced some of the most exciting games of any in-state rivalry.   Their annual meeting, the first game of the year, in Denver's Invesco Field, is always a good one.   This one went into OT where Colorado, coming back from an 11-point deficit, finally pulled it out.   *********** Nevada runs back an interception for a TD, but then Nebraska, decidedly non-West-Coast, straps it on and comes back and drives 40 yards on nine plays - without throwing a pass.   Hey, wait a minute! I thought Mr. Ex-Pro was going to come in and show these rubes the way football is played in the twenty-first century. I thought he was hired to open things up, so that, in the words of their exalted AD, they could compete with the Texases and the Oklahomas. At least that was why, we were told, Frank Solich was canned.   So now that he is into his third year, will someone please tell me what, exactly, Bill Callahan is doing that Frank Solich couldn't have done at least as well?   *********** It was part way through LSU's whipping of Mississippi State, and you had to feel Sylvester Croom's pain. Jackie Sherrill, last Mississippi State coach to win, was interviewed, and when asked about Coach Croom, he clearly empathized. What he said about Sylvester Croom hit home to me, as it would to anybody who's ever suffered with a bad team: "He's not having fun."   *********** Tulane suspended a guy named Oscar Ponce de Leon for three games.   I wonder how many times he was late for team meetings and used the "I was out looking for the Fountain of Youth" excuse. *********** I get it now. After three quarters the INEPT Irish have managed one field goal-just like a real NFL team. Except for the offense, defense, and special teams Fat Charlie has built a real dynasty. He waddles around the sidelines looking like he is expecting a delivery from Pizza Hut. Go Yellowjackets!!!! Tom Hinger, Winter Haven, Florida (Mr. Certified NFL Offensive Wizard wouldn't announce who his starting QB would be, when the reality was it didn't matter, because none of them could run his too-brilliant-for-them-to-understand offense. He pulled his starting QB with 2:30 left in the first half and zero points on the board, but told the sideline bimbo ("Coach, you played two quarterbacks in the first half - assess their performance for me") that he did it just to run the two-minute drill. And then he started the #2 guy in the second half and kept his starter on the bench the rest of the way. And then he pulled #2 for #3, Wonder Boy Jimmy Clausen, (who's now going to have to settle for three National Championship rings, because he sure as hell isn't going to win one this year). Wonder how The Big Genius is going to like it when those planes start flying over the stadium trailing "Good-Bye Charlie" signs. Say one thing for the guy, though - he sure can get those quarterbacks ready to play! Interestingly, Weis seems to be made of Teflon. Clinton would be proud of the cover The spin everywhere is that Notre Dame isn't expected to win - that they could lose 5 or 6.  Can you think of any  coach other than Mr. Genius who would be given a cushion like that??? HW)   *********** I am no fan of Charlie Weis, but I don't think that a sideline bimbo (in this case, one Alex Flanagan) has the right to walk up to him and halftime and say, "Hey, Charlie!"    *********** Twice in the same weekend, the Lewinskys at ESPN took us away from a college football game in order to watch baseball. First it was TWO INNINGS of a Minnesota Twin's attempt at a perfect game (whatever happened to the long standing tradition that when a guy had a no-hitter going, you didn't talk about it?) He didn't get it.   Then it was a Red Sox rookie throwing an ordinary no hitter, and when he did get it, we had to sit there, ready to hurl the remote at the TV, while they showed us the post-game celebration.   Whoopee-do.   They don't seem to understand college football fans. We are not generic sports fans, who don't care what's on the TV. We are passionate about our sport. Baseball has been there all summer if we wanted to watch. So what? We were busy checking off the days until college football started.   Taking us away from football and forcing baseball on us?   *********** Lucky for Michigan that Appalachian State's visit to the Big House was shown only on the Big Ten Network. But unlucky for everyone else, thanks to the arrogant money-and-power play by the Big Ten officials that set up their own network, which so far very, very few people are able to see. True, it may have hidden Michigan's national disgrace from public view, but otherwise, the Big Ten Network has the potential to marginalize all but its powerhouse teams. How are Big Ten officials going to argue that top to bottom, their conference matches up with the PAC-10s, the Big 12s, the SECs, when some of its teams are seldom seen, except on the Big Ten Network? I can already hear recruits in, say, Florida or Texas, asking the Minnesota (or Indiana, or Michigan State) recruiters why they're never on national TV. The really ironic thing is that for viewers in areas that can even get the Big Ten Network, in many cases they will have to pay extra to get it, so that they can watch the less desirable games that it carries - the ones the real networks carry. They can watch those games for free.   *********** The explosion of games on TV has resulted in an incredible number of untalented play-by-play guys who think they're still doing radio ("He's to the forty... the thirty-five... thirty..."), former players badly in need of diction lessons, and sideline bimbos who sound like Miss Teen South Carolina.   *********** Tiger Woods, maybe... But does Gillette really think a soccer player (Thierry Henry) and a tennis player (Roger Federer) are going to persuade guys watching a football game to buy their razors?   *********** Rip Engle, Joe Paterno's college coach and the guy who brought young Joe to Penn State as his assistant, was a great coach in his own right. He's the reason why Penn State's uniforms are about as conservative as you can get.   He resisted all efforts at a redesign, at something flashier, and his reason was always the same: "How will it look if we lose?"   Which brings us to Syracuse's new uniforms. They are all-orange. Very bright orange.   It is impossible to describe how garish they are.   They were obviously designed by someone who has never seen a football game.   Can't blame it on gays, because I watch HDTV occasionally, and they have better taste than that.   Perhaps they were designed in the Crayola factory.   Rule Number One: If you aren't very good, don't go out of your way to draw attention to yourself, And above all, don't give people another reason to ridicule you.   *********** Great news from Germany and the Hamburg Pioneers, who in their first year under new head coach Mathias Bonner have made the Division 5 post-season playoffs. After downing the Flensburg Bulldogs 55-6 two weeks ago, the Pioneers clinched the playoff spot with a 30-8 win over the Flensburg Sea Lords Sunday.   All football programs are invited to participate in the Black Lion Award program. The Black Lion Award is intended to go to the player on your team "Who best exemplifies the character of Don Holleder (see below): leadership, courage, devotion to duty, self sacrifice, and - above all - an unselfish concern for the team ahead of himself." The Black Lion Award provides your winner with a personalized certificate and a Black Lions patch, like the one worn at left by Army's 2005 Black Lion, Scott Wesley, and at right by Army's 2006 Black Lion, Mike Viti. There is no cost to you to participate as a Black Lion Award team. FOR MORE INFORMATION   ALL NEW! CST's Feature Story on the Black Lion Award BECOME A BLACK LION TEAM GIVE THE BLACK LION AWARD TO ONE OF YOUR PLAYERS! Will Sullivan, Army's 2004 Black Lion wore his patch (awarded to all winners) in the Army-Navy game (FOR MORE INFO) The Black Lion certificate is awarded to all winners   Take a look at this, beautifully done by Derek Wade, of Sumner, Washington --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Yy6iA_6skQ