Coach 57
11-14-2014, 10:22 AM
Years ago I coached at an predominate black school that hadn't had a great football tradition. As a letter of fact they'd lost to two teams in their division for 30+yrs (let that sink in). The facilities were terrible, the fans were worse and we (as a staff) had little to no help from administration & teachers. Our coaching staff had only been there for 3 yrs at the time and we knew what we were wanting to do was going to be REALLY DIFFUCULT. The upper class men we had inherited had losing mentalities and poor attitudes. The focus (school wise) was more in basketball than on football. The school was loaded with guys 6ft + athletes but they only wanted to play basketball. Plus the basketball coach forbided them to play football. So we started focusing our coaching efforts on the 9th graders & 10th graders. You could inwardly see changes almost immediately. But in our 2nd year there something happened that changed them. The two teams that had dominated this school for so long still clung to "the good ole boy" life and mentality. Rebel flag waiving, moonshine making & Hank Williams Jr. playing and sporting stickers & tshirt that said "the south will rise again" propoganda. And of course this idealology had been passed down to the players, but this was more prevalent in one of those schools more than the other. During our Fri night contest with that school we were BLOWN OUT! 48-10. It was embarrassing! But what made it worse was as mad as we were as coaches at the non-calls from the refs, the chain gang calling one of my DEs a "money" and the late hits on our QB was what happened when we got on the bus. As I made my way to the bus, I heard our kids laughing and joking around. It pissed me off SO bad! I told every one of them to "look at that score board! Is THAT funny? You just got your butts beat and you think that's funny? Donovan did you know you were called a "monkey" by the chain gang and then after which I had to be personally restrained by a deputy sherriff and our coaches? EVERYBODY GET OFF THE BUS RIGHT NOW!" As they made their way off the bus the Lord provided us with a cool late Oct pre-winter breeze. Because these kids were going to need it. We ran windsprints until the timer on the lights went off and we STILL continued to run. I've always said the loser was puked out of our boys that night all over their field!
One year later we prepared to face them THIS TIME at our place. It was electric! We set the tone very early by pulverizing their RB over and OVER and OVER! It would make ANY defensive coach smile because whenever there was a tackle made it was NEVER one guy to the ball! All 11 men were popping! They played like they were possessed! As we started to feel our opposition quit we never relented! And as we were up by 3 TDs headed into the 4th I remeber our DC tell our HC (we were all as a staff very tight) who was also the play caller "if you take your foot off the gas, I'm quitting tonight!" We continued to pour it on! And after the game was over and we began to shake hands with their players and coaches (some of which didn't want to shake our hands) I caught myself enjoying in their misery just a little too much. Hate is a powerful enemy & emotion. And I hated feeling like that way. It must be the Christ in me, but I had compassion for them afterwards. But seizing victory after 40+yrs was incredible. We had a bunch of kids that nobody would've ever wanted. We didn't win a championship but in my coaching career that was my favorite team I've ever coached.
What does this have to do with MSU's game with Bama? I know what the revenge tour feels like. I've lived it, coached it. It's an awesome feeling to know that every team that beat you in previous years falls to the way side of your heel. As rewarding as it is for the coaches it's the kid's faces I see still in my head after smashing both teams that year that had demoralized this high school for over 40 yrs. Is somebody cutting onions in here? Lol.
One year later we prepared to face them THIS TIME at our place. It was electric! We set the tone very early by pulverizing their RB over and OVER and OVER! It would make ANY defensive coach smile because whenever there was a tackle made it was NEVER one guy to the ball! All 11 men were popping! They played like they were possessed! As we started to feel our opposition quit we never relented! And as we were up by 3 TDs headed into the 4th I remeber our DC tell our HC (we were all as a staff very tight) who was also the play caller "if you take your foot off the gas, I'm quitting tonight!" We continued to pour it on! And after the game was over and we began to shake hands with their players and coaches (some of which didn't want to shake our hands) I caught myself enjoying in their misery just a little too much. Hate is a powerful enemy & emotion. And I hated feeling like that way. It must be the Christ in me, but I had compassion for them afterwards. But seizing victory after 40+yrs was incredible. We had a bunch of kids that nobody would've ever wanted. We didn't win a championship but in my coaching career that was my favorite team I've ever coached.
What does this have to do with MSU's game with Bama? I know what the revenge tour feels like. I've lived it, coached it. It's an awesome feeling to know that every team that beat you in previous years falls to the way side of your heel. As rewarding as it is for the coaches it's the kid's faces I see still in my head after smashing both teams that year that had demoralized this high school for over 40 yrs. Is somebody cutting onions in here? Lol.