1. Prep Softball: No. 6 Muskies Rout Clinton Twice Remain Tied For Machine
2. Prep Softball: No. 6 Muskies Rout Clinton Twice Remain Tied For Macon Ga

Bettendorf 7, Dav. North 1: Alina Steffen tallied a hat trick as the Class 3A No. 3 Bulldogs (9-0, 4-0) remain a half-game back of first place. Kalee Schultz scored for North. Pleasant Valley 10. ESPN News Wire More News Wires MLB NFL NBA NHL College Football Men's NCAA Basketball Women's NCAA Basketball WNBA Golf Auto Racing Tennis Boxing Horse Racing Olympics Cycling Track and Field. PRESS: Muskegon’s La’Darius Jefferson named STATE CHAMPS! Football presented by Hungry Howie’s: November 29th, 2017 – State Champs! Sports Network and Hungry Howie’s announced.

Published continually since 1998, 'NEWS YOU CAN USE' was a Blog before 'Blog' was even a word! Its intention has been to help inform the football coach and the interested football observer on a wide variety of to pics, usually - but not always - related in some way to coaching or leadership. It contains news and views often (trigger alert!) highly opinionated but intended to be thought-pr ovoking. Subjects cover but aren't limited to coaching, leadership, character, football history and current football happenings, education, parenting, citizenship and patriotism, other sports, and even, sometimes, my offense.) FRI D AY, NOVEMBER 30, 2018 'You do not memorize football - you work with it and it soaks in.” Homer Smith 'OPEN WING VIRTUAL CLINIC' - 5-DVD SET - Priced as a set so that you can purchase all five DVDs for less than the cost of buying four separately. THE DVDS ARE $39.95 EACH, BUT $150 FOR ALL FIVE - A SAVINGS OF $49.75! TO BUY - THE NEW DOUBLE WING PLAYBOOK IS BEING SHIPPED! This book represents the knowledge and experience I've accumulated in my more than 25 years of running and teaching the Double Wing.

(Those who've already ordered it and have been waiting can tell you how long it's taken me to put it together.) My intent is to show how I build the offense with 'blocks' - teaching the linemen just 8 'Building Blocks.' Each building block enables your backs to run dozens of plays. It's the most detailed 'how-to' book on the Double Wing ever published. It's 250 pages long, with more than 150 plays, and more than 150 photos of drills and plays. I also include and explain my wristcard-based play-calling system - it streamlines teaching and makes memorization obsolete, eliminating as much as it's humanly possible the need for kids to memorize plays. For those coaches who might want to adopt my system, the playcards are already in the book, prepared and ready to go. It would take you hours if you had to prepare them yourself, but all you have to do is copy them, print them on card stock and cut them to size.

(In my opinion, this alone is worth the price!) $39.95 TO ORDER - Q. Since I have been running your system for so long now, is there much value added with this one or is this for people just beginning? EJ, Pennsylvania A.

This is certainly designed to help the first-timer get up and running, but it's also a major upgrade for the hard-core Double Wing coach. Q. Hey coach, Does your new doublewing playbook have any plays from shotgun or any pistol or is it all from under center? CC, California A: Coach, Except for a series from punt formation, this one is all under center. REACTIONS TO THE NEW DOUBLE WING PLAYBOOK.

Coach, Thank you so much for putting together this updated playbook. Mine came on Saturday and i have been studying it non stop! I appreciate all the hard work, it's well written and as always well done with great illustrations. Thanks again coach. MB - Illinois. Received the dvd today and as usual you did not disappoint. DC - Maryland.

Got here today. THANKS Coach. Just in time for my vacation next week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not sure I can wait, though. JI - New York. I've had a great time going through your new playbook and I am only 20 or so pages in.

The graphics and tables are great! My hopes are that someday I can have the opportunity to implement your system. It really is my dream offense. MH - North Dakota. Coach, I reviewed my book and DVD's. They are outstanding! TJ - New Mexico.

received the fruit of your labor this week & examining the evolution.interesting to note, some of the changes have already been intuitively incorporated.I’m sure, I’m not the 1st to tell you that, but there sure are plenty we haven’t thought of.like finding that $5 bill you didn’t expect in your pocket! MK - Iowa. Coach, I received the book a week and a half ago and have read it twice. It is a amazing, I couldn't put it down. Very detailed and informative. A perfect book for a newbie to the Double Wing, but also plenty of information for the veterans as well.

The pictures to show the various drills and skills are worth the price of the book alone, then you add the wrist card and I feel I owe you more money. Another excellent job. I cannot wait for the season to get here.

There are going to be some very upset youth coaches here in Northern Vermont, they are thinking they have my team figured out. Again Coach thank you for the time you took putting this wonderful Double Wing playbook together. JG - Vermont.

I’ve spent an entire day delving into the deliciousness of all things doublewing. This is without question the GOLD STANDARD for materials. No one else out there has put together anything even close (I would guess since I don’t listen to anyone but you). The bar is extremely high now. I thought the original was amazing.and it was, but this one blows it away. Much appreciated.

BK - Iowa. Coach Wyatt - Thank you for the updates.it has really produced new excitement in our coaching staff. I have been a disciple of the Wyatt Way since my Grand Forks, ND Red River to Larimore, ND days & now at - MN. We are looking forward to trying some of the new wrinkles to make our offense better. We’ve been using the tumble snap under center & in the gun for years (since 2008 I believe) & it works great with minimal teaching. ALL of our linemen learn to snap.

Thank you coach for all that you do. “It takes a set!” PP - Minnesota. The Dynamics 3.0 book is incredible. I've spent the past few nights reading it page for page. Had a coaches meeting yesterday morning and my assistants loved it. I'd like to get them each a copy of the book.

CS - Colorado. I received the open wing and playbook.

The videos are golden. But this new playbook is really a goldmine of information and coaching points. Thank you for your hard work. CE - Oklahoma. I must say the playbook is OUTSTANDING, I can't put it down. DP - Washington, DC. Hi coach I love your book.

I've been studying it carefully and like some of the changes and I am still contemplating some of the other changes. I'm very excited about the product I love it. You did a great job. RP - Minnesota. Just finished first read through.excellent!!

Love all the little coaching points and “where it will/might go wrong.so watch for this” pointers. Thank you for all the work you’ve put into this. MN - UK. I am really enjoying the DW 3.0 book.

Great detail work. JB - Illinois. it is Awesome! You did a great job! SM - North Carolina.

I can’t put down the book. Very nice job, the photos the diagrams / illustrations are amazing. I love the adjustment from true pull to shuffle for the backside guard and tackle and moving from shoeshine blocking. JC - California. I really am enjoying the DW 3.0. Spent the better part of 2 1/2 days writing out by hand the play cards.and they have been very well received (and these guys are learning to be engineers).can’t make it any more simple.

Prep Softball: No. 6 Muskies Rout Clinton Twice Remain Tied For Machine

RH - New York. SIGN UP TO PRESENT THE BLACK LION AWARD TO A PLAYER ON YOUR TEAM - COACH GREG KOENIG (ON THE RIGHT IN THE PHOTO) HAS PRESENTED IT TO PLAYERS AT THREE DIFFERENT SCHOOLS IN COLORADO AND KANSAS SINCE 2001 - AND NOW HE'S AT HIS FOURTH SCHOOL - WHERE HE STILL PRESENTS IT!

IT'S THE ONLY AWARD HE GIVES! IT'S ABSOLUTELY FREE - YOUR PLAYER RECEIVES A CERTIFICATE AND AN OFFICIAL BLACK LION PATCH. NOW'S THE TIME TO SIGN YOUR TEAM UP AND - EMAIL ME THE NAME OF THE TEAM AND THE HEAD COACH'S CONTACT INFO: FIND OUT WHAT YOU NEED TO DO FROM THERE. Hugh, With Paul Johnson stepping away at Georgia Tech does that mean the option era at GT is over?

Some seem to think that Jeff Monken would be a good candidate. Frankly, I don't think Coach Monken would even entertain the thought. He has a great thing going at West Point, and I think the Army would put together a really lucrative offer to have him stay. What you say? Joe Gutilla Austin, Texas Joe, In my opinion, we’ve all seen the last of an under-center option attack at the top levels of college football. Paul Johnson was successful, but it would have taken more spectacular success than he achieved to turn other coaches on to his offense so that it grew tentacles. Download symbol set swa font for mac.

And even then, it probably wouldn’t have been enough to satisfy fans and boosters who expect to see passing or recruits who expect to be a part of something more trendy. There is no chance that we’ll see Jeff Monken or anyone else ever again run the ‘bone at GT, and very little chance that we’ll ever see it again at the Power 5 level.

A friend, a former Coca-Cola executive with friends close to the Tech scene, tells me that no matter what else you might read, PJ’s “retirement' was about his “boring offense.” If winning isn’t enough, t here’s no answer to that. It can’t be about Tech “wanting to do better.” The Tech people can talk all they like about that, but the reality is that Johnson did as well as anyone could have been expected to do.

Since the glory days of Bobby Dodd’s teams in the 1950s, Tech has played just a bit over.500 football. Paul Johnson leaves as the fourth winningest coach in GT history, behind three legends of the past - Dodd, Bill Alexander, and John Heisman. Of all the coaches that Tech has had since Coach Dodd retired in 1966 (with a.713 win-loss percentage), PJ's percentage of.585 is second only to that of George O’Leary, who leveraged his success into the Notre Dame job. (That’s another story.) Even Bobby Ross, who won a national championship there, posted an overall win-loss percentage of only.543. Bill Curry, a GT legend as a player, could finish no better than.423. Georgia Tech, like a number of other schools (Army, Notre Dame, Minnesota, for example) is living in a glorious past that will never return. Just as Army will never again be the team that it was in World War II and the years immediately afterward, just as Notre Dame will never again get its pick of the best Catholic kids in America, Georgia Tech will never again be THE football team in the South’s biggest city, as it was in Coach Dodd’s day.

Georgia Tech people are saying that they want more than just a winning team that goes to a bowl game every year - they want ACC championships, and an occasional spot in the playoff. Well, guess what? So do other people in the ACC: the people at Clemson, Miami, Florida State, Virginia Tech (to note only the ones best positioned to compete for those spots). The big winners in all this are Army and Navy. They have coaches they are happy with, and there is next to no chance that those coaches will ever leave for greener pastures, because nobody else wants their offense. (Monken would put a winner on the field at GT, but the fans would really hate watching - he throws even less than Johnson.) Sorry to sound a trifle down, but I think the grand experiment is over. Now, I look for the guys on the rules committee to finish the job.

I keep hearing the concussion guys talking about reducing repetitive blows to linemen’s heads by eliminating the three-point stance. That ought to about do it. 'I was saddened when Coach Johnson informed me that he was going to step down as our head coach,' Georgia Tech athletic director Todd Stansbury said. But happy as hell to get the deep-pocket alumni off my ass. Now I can go out and hire a guy who’ll run an exciting, wide-open offense the same as everybody else in the ACC and Big 12. At least then when we finish a hair over (or under).500 they can’t blame it on the offense. It’s almost two years old, but Jeff Monken’s explanation of his plan for turning Army from a 3-9 team into a (now) 9-2 team is still good reading.

Back in 2001, when my friend Greg Koenig was coaching at Las Animas, Colorado, it was a big deal - a VERY big deal - when his kids upset Limon. Limon is in eastern Colorado, on the plains about midway between Denver and the Kansas line. Limon has only 135 kids in its school, below the 150-student cutoff to play 11-man football, but it has been given special dispensation to play 11-man. It has 32 kids on the football team - roughly half the boys in the school. It just won another state title - its 18th.

Limon holds state records with 18 titles, six consecutive titles, 50 consecutive wins and 13 unbeaten seasons. Greg sent me a great article about this little town and its remarkable football tradition:. I was doing a little research and got to reading more about Frank Girardi. For 36 years - from 1972 through 2007 - he was head coach at D-III Lycoming College, in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. He retired with a record of 257-97-5. HIs teams made 11 D-III playoiff appearances, and made it to the final game twice. Very impressive.

But that’s not why I’m writing. There’s a great story about him that every football coach will understand and relate to. On the morning of his first game as head coach at Lycoming, his house caught on fire. As his wife and kids had to evacuate the house, still in their pajamas, he had to leave. He had a team waiting for him. They had a game to play. He would later recall that Lycoming lost that first game, to Albright, 39-0.

'That was the start of my college coaching career,” he said. “Our house burned down and we were beaten 39-0. I think the 39-0 hurt me more.'

. Watching Dan Mullen break up an interview to go put a stop to the clowns on his team trying to plant a Florida flag in the Florida State logo got me to thinking about the need for us to express ourselves in terms that others could understand. Maybe, to put our feelings about the national anthem protests in proper perspective, we should have just told the NFL kneelers, “Guys, to you it may be protesting, but to us it's like dancing on our logo.”. The Headline: ACC suspends NC State, North Carolina players after huge brawl The Story: When NC State scored against North Carolina to win in OT, a Carolina player started lashing out in apparent frustration. And when an NC State player took offense, it was game on. But truthfully, with the exception of a handful of players - a couple of UNC hotheads who acted like jackasses, and a couple of NC State guys who didn’t take to their antics - it didn’t look to me at all like a “huge brawl.” Actually, considering the heat of the moment, what impressed me was the number of guys on both teams who stood around and did NOT join in the “huge brawl.” Typical media sensationalism. (“Film at eleven.”).

I wrote to a coach I know - a very good coach - who had a rough season, and said I tell guys who've known nothing but success that while I wish them no ill, I do sort of wish they could have one tough season so their education as a coach will be complete!. An Iowa “football mom” whose son had graduated decided she wanted to do more than just sit in the stands as watch - so she offered to keep stats Being down on the sidelines, she writes, is “indescribable I see and hear everything. I see how much the coaches are invested in these boys and in this program. We have an absolute great bunch of coaches who know their football.

I hear them strategize. I hear them say “atta boy.” It gives me great pride to be a part of this program.”. It’s a source of considerable resentment among Army football people that in the recruiting wars, competing coaches have subtly - and sometimes not so subtly - suggested that if a young high school football player were to choose to go to West Point, it would be just a matter of time before his life was in danger, in some godforsaken place on the other side of the globe. People may not be aware of how West Point cadets wind up in the branch of the Army that they do, but it’s the result of a competitive process. Certain branches are more highly prized than others, and acceptance into them is determined by class rank.

You might not think so, but the most desired branches of the service are “combat arms” - infantry, armor and artillery - and the number one branch in terms of desirability is the “Queen of Battle” - the infantry. The infantry means “boots on the ground,” and no decoration in the Army is more respected that the Combat Infantryman Badge - look for it atop all the other decorations on the left breast of a soldier. It can only be awarded to one serving in infantry, as a Ranger or in Special Forces. It means that the wearer of the badge has “seen the elephant” - he has been “personally present and under fire” during “active ground combat.” Navy football recruiters wouldn’t get far with the “we’re safer than the Army” approach because a number of its players choose infantry duty after graduation, too. Of the 34 seniors on this year’s team, 16 will serve in the Marine Corps.

One of them will train to become a Marine pilot, but the others have selected Marine Corps Ground. At least four of the future Marines are starters - quarterback Zach Abey, starting fullback Anthony Gargiulo and starting inside linebackers Hudson Sullivan and Taylor Heflin. How they came to choose the Marines is an interesting story, in the Annapolis Capital Gazette the key factor in encouraging Navy football players to pursue a Marine Corps career is exposure. To that end, Green and Walsh have annually taken rising senior football players with an interest to Marine Corps Base Quantico for a week-long training exercise. Abey said a large contingent of Navy football players were divided into squads and actually played some war games. It was meant to give the prospective Marines an understanding of The Basic School, the six-month training that is conducted at Quantico. “We spend some time in the field, shoot the rifles and do the whole deal of staying overnight in the woods.

We had different squads and game-planned attacks and actually shot blank rounds at each other,” Abey said. “It was really cool, a really fun training. We had all the Marine Corps equipment and got a taste of what will be doing during TBS.” That introductory training session is known as Camp Leatherneck and is purposefully designed to be difficult. Gargiulo said it rained almost nonstop during the week the football players participated and he joked about cooking food in a bag and eating dried crackers. “Actually, being out in the woods wasn’t the bad part. It was all the long-distance running and not having a nice Italian meal ready for you after a long day in the field,” Gargiulo said with a chuckle. Abey had a feeling he wanted to serve in the Marine Corps upon arrival at the Naval Academy and that was only reinforced by talking to numerous former teammates that had already taken that route.

“It’s something I wanted to do coming in here. Just seeing so many members of The Brotherhood choose Marine Corps really influenced me,” Abey said.

“Seeing the summer trainings at Quantico, I thought it was really equivalent to Navy football.” Sullivan initially thought about joining the aviation community, but gradually changed his mind after hearing about the Marine Corps from inside linebacker predecessors such as Cody Petersen and Winn Howard. The northern Virginia native, who did not grow up too far from Quantico, also learned a lot from the summer training session. “When we were down there they told us about the close resemblance between the Marine Corps and football and it makes a lot of sense,” Sullivan said. “Everything we learned on the football field can be implemented into the Marine Corps.”. Coach - As much as I miss coaching, and have strongly considered getting back into it, after reading and hearing about the state of the game I sometimes ask myself if I truly want to coach football again.

Will it ever be worth it.like it used to be?? It is very different. The things that I saw on the horizon when I started writing and corresponding with coaches 20+ years ago are now right here.

You can still find some good places to coach but now you have to be much more selective about where you decide to do it. I think the biggest reason is the fact that the Me Generation had kids, and those kids are now in high school. The word “No” is not in their vocabulary, kids or parents. Combine that with the increase in the amount of influence even one aggrieved person can have, and with the cowardice of today’s school and political leaders, who have no qualms about sacrificing a coach if that’s what it takes to get a parent off their ass, and I would venture a guess that in 90 per cent of cases where parents stir up things about a coach - rightly or wrongly - the coach is gone within a year. In a sense, it mirrors what’s happening in our country. It used to be that most places in our country were pleasant and safe. And even then, many of the places that weren’t particularly pleasant were still safe.

There were bad places, but everybody knew where they were and all you had to do was be smart enough to stay away from them. But the bad guys (at great risk of being politically incorrect, I include the precious “homeless” in that category) seem more and more to have the upper hand, so that now there are so many more places where you just don’t go. I once considered downtown Portland to be about the most hospitable of any city I’d ever seen; now, you can go there and trip over bums or step in their sh—.

There are still nice places, but you have to be careful, and to some degree I think that it’s a reflection of their politics. I also think that applies to the way coaches are treated and the way their schools are run. My advice is to look as far from a big city as possible - in a rural area or a smaller city.

Even in a red state, the bigger metro areas are blue, and the outlying once-rural areas are starting to fill up with members of the Me Generation and their kids. Greg Koenig, after more than 10 years in Kansas a K-State fan, sent me a link to the best article I’ve ever read on what Bill Snyder has meant to Kansas State football, and how the future without him could mean a return to the bleak days before he arrived.

Unfortunately, in all the things I read, there never seems to be even the slightest suggestion of a solution. The author sums up the dilemma facing those charged with replacing Coach Snyder - something which ultimately must happen - and although a winning Wildcat program must remain uppermost in their prorities, it must happen with grace and dignity and respect for Coach Snyder’s accomplishments: He’s not a volunteer, entitled to stay as long as he wants. He is compensated handsomely, and he himself surely expects better results than he has been able to achieve in recent years. But neither is he some dispensable rabble to be discarded without a moment’s regret.

Maybe a compromise would be to let Coach Snyder choose his successor (not his son Sean, as Coach Snyder would prefer), with a significant place for Sean on the new staff. For sure, this presents a wonderful opportunity for the school administration to demonstrate to young, impressionable students how to handle difficult situations with class. The last thing they can afford to do is to send Bill Snyder off, a bitter man.

A fandom that prides itself on being “family” can’t send dad off into exile. Let’s see, now: On the offensive side, USC fired the offensive coordinator and the offensive line coach (fired him back in October) - and the QB coach left “to pursue other opportunities” (what coach does that on his own?) On the other side of the ball, they fired the defensive line coach and the defensive backs’ coach. So tell me again, Lynn Swann, why you kept a head coach who now has to go out - in the middle of prime recruiting time - and hire half a staff, which then has to go out and tell recruits why they should believe that a coach who just had to fire half his staff will still be there this time next year.

Writes Pete Thamel, yahoo sports As the Pac-12 has slipped away from college football’s mainstream, desperately attempting to keep up with the coaching contracts and conference television cash, its flagship school is a mess The athletic director’s first major decision has backfired spectacularly, as Swann bid against himself this winter to keep Helton and extended him through 2023, showing no feel for the market nor particular care for USC’s budget. Had Swann bothered to do a few simple Google searches, he could have found out that no other Power 5 job was sniffing at Helton. “The Pac-12 has slipped away from college football’s mainstream.” Ouch. Those were the words of yahoo.com’s Pete Thamel. Closer to home, the Portland Oregonian’s John Canzano, whom I consider to be a bit of a pit bull when he gets after something, is after Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott.

And it’s about time. In the first of a four-part series that I personally hope will lead to a housecleaning at the Conference’s San Francisco headquarters, Canzano notes that Lord Larry, a former Harvard tennis player whose previous job as head of the Women’s Tennis Association scarcely qualified him for the Pac-12 commissionership, has built himself quite an empire, mostly at the expense of member schools. The bastard is paid $4.8 million a year, more than the combined pay of Big Ten Commissoner Jim Delany ($2.3 million) and SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey ($1.9 million). He makes more than any football coach in the conference; contrast that with Sanke, who makes less than any of the SEC’s football coaches, and Delaney, who makes less than all but two of the Big Ten’s football coaches. Did I mention that Lord Larry prefers to travel by private jet? The Pac-12 spent $3.1 million on conference travel in the last fiscal year. By comparison, the SEC spent $788,000 and the Big Ten $542,000.

Prep Softball: No. 6 Muskies Rout Clinton Twice Remain Tied For Macon Ga

I mentioned the headquarters. The Pac-12 chose downtown San Francisco, one of the most expensive places in the United States, and for that they pay $6.9 million a year in rent. (You might want to repeat that. Slowly.) Suburban Chicago is good enough for the Big Ten, which pays $1.36 million in rent, and the SEC has gone decidedly low-rent, paying $318,000 rent at its Birmingham headquarters.

What do the league members get as the fruit of Scott's labors? Well, each Pac-12 member school received $31 million in revenues in the last fiscal year. But compare that with $41 million for each SEC member (that’s TEN MILLION DOLLARS A YEAR MORE - EVERY F—KING YEAR!) and $37 million for each Big Ten member. And that’s not all, folks - while the Pac-12 screws around trying to make money with its own TV network, the Big Ten and ESPN announced a new six-year deal that will mean $50 million a year for each member.

Think about that a minute - every year, every Pac-12 school will start out NINETEEN MILLION DOLLARS behind every Big Ten school! (Money does have its advantages when you’re building and sustaining a major college football program.) Instead of serving the conference members, writes Canzano, “the Pac-12 offices have treated itself like the 13th and most important member.” I can’t wait for the next installment. So far, this stuff is Pulitzer Prize material. Tom Walls, who lives and coaches in Winnipeg, Manitoba, is a native of New York State by way of Delaware, and he sent me this nice article about a Delaware senior named Vinnie Papale. Vinnie Papale is the son of Vince Papale, on whose pro football career the movie “Invincible” was based. Loosely, I should add.

The movie story line is that Vince Papale, who after being signed as a free agent by the Eagles became a fan favorite for his balls-out play, was a down-on-his-luck bartender whose football experience prior to the Eagles consisted of playing rough touch with his drinking buddies. Although he didn’t play college ball - he was a decathlete at St. Joseph’s - he was talked into playing semi-pro ball outside Philly. That’s where I saw him, and when the World Football League got under way I arranged for him to attend a tryout. His speed, route-running and hands blew our coach away, and I signed him on the spot. He played two seasons in the WFL for the Philadelphia Bell, and it was on the strength of that experience - and his fierce determination to succeed - that the Eagles took a look at him. And signed him.

Why don’t crappy teams try to run the ball? Running the ball requires good linemen, and if there’s one thing that crappy teams don’t have, it’s good linemen. The reason for that is simple: there are more lean, fast, receiver/defensive back type guys than there are big, strong lineman-type guys, and by the time the big schools have signed all the players they want, there are often some good receivers and defensive backs left unsigned, but there just aren’t enough good lineman left for the also-rans. A Boston area high school team fought for - and won - the right to play their Thanksgiving Day game on, of all days, Thanksgiving!. Washington Huskies’ Defensive Coordinator Jimmy Lake may have an axe to grind with Mike Leach - I don’t know why else he’d say what he said afterward - but he’s not your ordinary, cliche-filled coach. Asked if he was surprised that Leach didn’t do anything unexpected in the Apple Cup, he said,“It does surprise me. But knowing what I read about the head football coach here, he does things a little different way, so hopefully he remains here a long time.

That would be awesome.” He went on to say that Leach’s game plan appeared to be “exactly the same” as in previous years. “It makes it real easy for us,” he said. “Next year, maybe he’ll throw a little curveball. But it makes it very easy when you know what you’re going to get, so it’s awesome.” “I mean, we know what type of offense we’re playing. They do the same thing, year in and year out. This is five years in a row now, and so it makes it real easy to game-plan.' First of all, I think that if this guy does know what he says he does, he’s dumber than sh— for letting it be known.

When someone breaks the enemy’s code, do they let the enemy know? But second of all, all you coaches out there should check yourselves - if you heard an opponent boasting like that, would you just be pissed, or would you still be pissed, but think about it a bit and say, “Hey - maybe he’s got a point.” See, it could be that by woofing like this, Lake is actually doing Leach a favor. He’s telling him something that Leach’s own assistants may not know or, if they do, may be afraid to tell him.

(I admit that I don’t know Mike Leach at all and have no idea whether that could be true.) Not many guys at the top like to be told unpleasant things. Their underlings hear them go on about not appreciating “negativity,” and they quickly figure out that the best way to keep their jobs is to shield the boss from things that might upset him. It’s a major explanation for the incompetence we see at the highest levels of our major institutions. I thought about this a week or so ago when I read in the Wall Street Journal the obituary of a guy who early in his career had grown frustrated working for Reynolds and Company, a large financial services firm. He wrote a letter of resignation, and when the boss called him in and asked him to explain why he was resigning, he replied that it was a “lousy” company - and went on to tell the boss why. To show what a rare leader the boss was, he said, “Hmm. Maybe I should make you my personal assistant.” The guy accepted the boss’ offer, and when he retired, he was CEO of the firm, Dean Witter Reynolds.

QUIZ ANSWER - Twice a castoff - sent packing by two different losing NFL teams - Billy Kilmer was 32 before he finally found the right place and the right coach - and wound up twice being named an All-Pro quarterback. At UCLA, he was the last of their famous single-wing tailbacks.

He was the classic triple threat: in his senior year at UCLA, he passed for more than 1,000 yards, ran for more than 800 yards and eight touchdowns, and did all the Bruins’ punting. In the NFL, he was the last single wing tailback to make the switch to quarterback (which until fairly recently meant going under center to take the snap). He was an All-American in 1960, finishing fifth in the Heisman balloting, and in the College All-Star Game the following summer he was named MVP. He was a first-round draft choice of the 49ers, and in his rookie year (along with John Brodie and Bobby Waters) was one of the three quarterbacks used in rotation by coach Red Hickey in his direct-snap formation which he called the “shotgun.” ASIDE: from Red Hickey’s obituary in the New York Times: The 49ers, with a 4-4 record, were practicing at Georgetown University for their game against the two-time defending champion Baltimore Colts on Nov. 27, 1960, when Hickey called a meeting. 'I asked my players if any of them thought we could beat Baltimore with our regular offense, and not one hand went up,' Hickey told The San Francisco Chronicle in 2001.

Hoping to cope with a Colts rush led by linemen Art Donovan, Gino Marchetti and Big Daddy Lipscomb, Hickey scrapped the T formation. He had his quarterback stand about 5 yards behind the line instead of taking the snap while under center, and he spread his backs to the sides. That alignment, drawing on the double wing and short punt formations previously used in college football, gave the offense an extra second or two to develop a play. The quarterback could run, hand off to a crisscrossing back or throw. The 49ers upset the Colts, 30-22. In the locker room, Hickey told reporters that his offense was simply 'spread right and spread left.' But moments later, as he related it to The Chronicle in 2001, he came up with something more sprightly.

'Well, I'm an old country boy, and I used to go hunting with a shotgun,' he said. 'How about we call it the shotgun?' The shotgun excited the 49ers to the point where they traded quarterback Y.A. Tittle - not a very good runner - after the season, but by mid-season 1961 NFL defenses had driven the 49ers back to the “T” (under center) formation, and Kilmer, who still hadn’t made the transition from single wing tailback to T-formation quarterback, was used mostly as a running back. He missed one season after being seriously injured in an off-season automobile accident, and spent most of the rest of his time with the 49ers on the bench, until 1967 when he was put on the expansion list and taken by the brand-new New Orleans Saints. Over four seasons he was the Saint’s starting QB much of the time, but those Saints really sucked, and when it became apparent that the they were planning to draft sensational Ole Miss QB Archie Manning, he asked to be traded.

That’s when he was acquired by the Redskins’ George Allen, and his pro career really began. Acquired to be the backup for Sonny Jurgenson, he wound up the Redskins’ starter when Jurgenson was injured in an exhibition game, and he did so well that even when Jurgenson returned, Washington fans were split into two camps, each supporting one of the two quarterbacks. And even though he appeared to become Allen’s favorite because he was less of a gunslinger type than Jurgenson, there was no such rivalry between the two quarterbacks. Perhaps it was because they both were known to enjoy a drink now and then.

(Kilmer’s preference for strong drink led his teammates to nickname him “Whiskey.”) In 1972 he took the Redskins to the Super Bowl, where they lost to the undefeated Miami Dolphins. After Allen was fired following the 1977 season, Allen’s successor, Jack Pardee, replaced him with Joe Theismann, and he ended his career that season as Theismann’s backup. In 16 years in the NFL, he was twice named All-Pro. In all, he completed 1585 passes for 20,495 yards and 146 interceptions. And - the old tailback in him - he rushed for 1509 yards and 21 touchdowns. Also - from his early days in the League, he caught 27 passes for 288 yards and a TD, and punted 16 times for 598 yards.

Billy Kilmer is ranked among the top 70 Redskins of all time. CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING BILLY KILMER JOHN VERMILLION - ST.