How Do They Do It?

Did any of you catch the Michigan vs. Air Force game? Air Force had Michigan on the ropes late in the fourth quarter at The Big House! A pro Michigan crowd of over 105, 000 cheered a vastly more talented Wolverine team on to a win over feisty Air Force 31-25. How do the service academies do it? Yes, Notre Dame put a whippin' on Navy two weeks ago but the Midshipmen and Falcons have been very competitive for the last several years against superior talent. Army has been down but I think they're getting better. So, I ask again, how do they do it?

The answer to that might be several different factors but the main one, in my opinion, is disciplined football. Air Force and Navy both run an extremely effecient triple option offense. And they run it flawlessly. Every football guy knows that option football is an equalizer on the field and can allow the team with less talent to go with a bigger, stronger, faster team. The deception and "trickery" if you will, is said to be the equalizer. Now, personally, I don't find the option trickery, just smart football. Never the less, it IS deceptive, but all offenses feature fakes and deception. It's considered though a high risk offense because of the pitch from the QB to the pitch back and that scares off a lot of coaches. But it's not high risk the way these guys run it to perfection.

Another factor is the tremendous personal discipline that the athletes of the academies possess. I mean, these guys are dedicated and committed to excellence in ALL areas, not just football. It carries over to the football field in a way that all football coaches admire. These guys are athletic, smart, classy and real all-americans. It demonstrates how much of a team game football is when lesser talent can band together and play fundamentally sound football to the extent these guys do.

As you can tell I'm a big fan of the service academies football teams and I really enjoy watching them. Course, I love option football too and that's what they run. There are probably other factors that contribute to the success of Navy and Air Force but those are my top two factors on how they do it. Your thoughts? Chiefpigskin.com

College Season Begins

I've always loved the college football season, more so than the pros. So it is with great anticipation that I dive in to the college season. One thing I liked about college is that you got a chance to watch different offenses and defenses. Everyone had their own style. But I'm a little disappointed when I see just about everyone running the spread. Every game seems the same, just like the NFL, but I guess there's enough difference to enjoy the college landscape. Don't get me wrong, the spread can be exciting but the game has slowed down in a way. Although the spread is designed to "play fast" and it does, I get tired of motion penalties, holding calls, delay of game. And the players get to the line of scrimmage and stop, look at the sideline, shift, look at the sideline, motion, audible, point, then finally run the play for an incomplete pass that runs two seconds off the clock. I liked it when they broke the huddle, ran the play, and kept things rolling. There's too much choppiness in games.

After all that complaining I still really do love college football. I'm looking forward to Navy and Notre Dame playing in Ireland and Alabama playing Michigan in Texas I think. Texas? Why Texas? Anyway, Alabama will have too much speed and dominate the Wolverines by the middle of the third quarter. But I'm a Big Ten fan so I hope Michigan does well. Navy runs that double wing offense to precision and I'll be pulling for them.

High school football is getting into full swing and their are some fun match ups there as well. I'm going to enjoy this Labor Day weekend and try to relax. You do the same. Chiefpigskin.com

Hittin' the Rock

It's a good thing they didn't have video games and computer games when I was a kid, I'm afraid I would've been playing them all the time. Not that they're a bad thing so much, it's just that it would've taken away my time that I played hard. You see, I've always enjoyed playing games. That's probably part of the reason why I love sports so much. Oh, I did play a lot of board games back then, but that was mostly when it was bad weather outside. I invented a lot of games that I could play solitaire. If I couldn't find some buddies that were playing a game of football, baseball, or even a war game, then I would make up a game. One of the games I invented was called "hitting the rock".

Before I talk about my game of, "hitting the rock", how many of you old-timers out there remember the electronic football game? The game consisted of a large football playing field that had 22 football figures that you put on top of the playing field. You would set up your offense and defense just the way you wanted and turn a switch and the board would begin to vibrate. The vibration caused the players to move and you could watch the play unfold before your very eyes. We thought it was pretty cool, but the drawback was that it took a long time to set up for the next play. Or how about the old All-Star baseball game by Ethan Allen? That game consisted of player cards that you could put on a spinner and would determine whether the player got a hit or made an out. I used to play an entire 162 game schedule with my team. I kept all the stats for every player, batting average, hits, home runs, and RBIs. You can see what kind of gamer I was.

I don't know how I came up with my game of throwing a football at the rock but here's how it went. In our yard we had a big rock that was about 3 feet wide and 2 feet high. I would get into my quarterback stance at the other end of the yard about 15 yards away. At the snap, (to myself)I would either drop back and throw at the rock or rollout, bootleg, scramble, whatever. If I hit the rock it was a complete pass and a 10 yard first down. If I missed the rock it was simply an incomplete pass and I would go to the next down. In this way I could drive the ball down the field by simply playing my passing game of hitting the rock. I would try and make it difficult by scrambling and throwing on the run and making it very real. The best time to play this game would be in October or November when the weather was a little cooler. I did a lot of running around and broke a good sweat. Do you believe I could play that game for a couple of hours? I would have Ohio State versus Michigan, or Alabama versus Penn State. I would usually decide that the first team to a certain score would be the winner. So if I decided that the first team to 28 would win, then I would play until someone reached that score. Any of you out there ever do anything as crazy as that? Or am I the only guy that if I didn't have a game to play would just make one up?

Looking back, I can see why I was always in shape. I never stopped playing. Of course, I still had my Little League games, my high school sports teams and other organized activities. But I think I had just as much fun in some of those board games and crazy made-up games. And you know what? To this day I still love to play games. www.chiefpigskin.com

My Recruitment!

You wouldn't think that a freshman in high school standing 5 feet tall and weighing about 95 pounds would be a recruiting target, but I actually was. No, I was not being recruited by Michigan to play tailback, although I sure would've liked that. After all, football was my favorite sport. And I wasn't being recruited by UCLA to play basketball, although I sure would've liked that also. So who in the world would recruit a freshman who weighed 95 pounds for anything? I was being recruited for the high school wrestling team. You see, 95 pounders were pretty valuable guys to have on the team. Some schools didn't have a 95 pounder on the wrestling team and they would have to forfeit that weight class. Meaning, you got an automatic win in that weight class if you had a guy on your team that weighed 95. One of the most basic ways to have a competitive wrestling team is to make sure that you fill all the weight classes. Well, they had their eye on me for that 95 pound spot.

Now of course, there aren't too many guys walking the halls of high school that weigh95 pounds. So early in the fall when I was on the football team I became the target of the wrestling coach. Mr. Gross was his name and he was the line coach for the varsity football team. He was an older coach, had a big barrel chest, and always looked mad. Every time he saw me out on the practice field, or coming in or out from practice, he would always stop me and say, "NL,” in that nasal voice of his, "are you gonna come out for wrestling?" At first I ignored him because I have to admit I was a little scared of Mr. Gross. Secondly, I had never wrestled in my life. Oh ,I had wrestled in the backyard with my buddies and with my brothers, but not this kind of wrestling with rules. In fact, I didn't even know there was such a thing as a high school wrestling team. I played basketball in grade school and although I wasn't great, I started on the grade school basketball team and had a fair amount of success. We didn’t have a wrestling team. So when Mr. Gross started asking me if I was going to wrestle, my response of course, was no. Now I didn't tell HIM that, because as I said, I was a little bit afraid of Mr. Gross. So my strategy was just to pretend like I didn't hear him or duck him whenever I could. Eventually, I had to answer because he continued to ask me if I was going to wrestle. My response was a very definite, "ummm maybe." Why couldn't this guy just take a hint? There was no way I was getting talked into this.

Toward the end of the football season, one night after practice, one of the captains of the wrestling team who was not playing a fall sport, grabbed me and brought me into the wrestling room. In the room was a handful of guys practicing takedowns. At least that's what they said they were doing. I believed them because I didn't know what a takedown was. Well, Mr. Wrestling Captain paired me up with another little freshman and said, "You guys are going to go takedowns for a little bit. Mr. Gross said you were interested in wrestling." "What do I do?" I asked. “Well”, the captain replied, “You just try to get a hold of him and take him down to the mat.” He looked at my opponent and winked. I wasn't sure what I was going to do, so I just figured I'd try to tackle him just like I did on the football field. The captain blew his whistle, and I charged in low and hard, grabbed both legs and took the guy to the mat. The captain was in disbelief! He had been working with this other little guy for the last two weeks and I walked in to the room and took him down in about 5 seconds. After chastising my opponent, he told us to try again. Again I tackled my opponent to the mat in about five or 10 seconds. Now the captain was really chastising my opponent. His protégé had just gone down twice in 30 seconds. He told me that was enough, and sent me to the locker room.

Mr. Gross must've gotten wind of what happened, because the next day he told me that I was definitely going to wrestle. I finally said, "Mr. Gross I've never wrestled in my life, I don't think I can do it." Well, he had a good answer for me. The old coach said, "Are you tough?" "Yeah, I'm tough." I said. "Are you a good athlete?" “Yeah, I'm a good athlete.” “ Then you can wrestle!” growled the old coach, and that was that. He sure knew how to appeal to my cockiness.

When the football season got over, I figured I'd give wrestling a try. So on the first day of practice I reported to the team. I walked in to see about 30 other guys in the practice room. Most of them were football players so I felt right at home. I didn't know the rules, I didn't know any moves, and I had no clue what was going on. The one thing that I can remember about my first wrestling practice, is that about 20 minutes into it I threw up. I thought I was in good shape. After all, I had been playing sports my entire life. But I wasn't ready for this. It took only a few minutes and I was so tired I could barely get off the mat. After barely making it to the bathroom I threw up in the toilet, wiped my mouth with my t-shirt and headed back into the room. What had I gotten myself into?

Thanks again to http://www.chiefpigskin.com for letting me share.