Stock was the wide receiver coach at Notre Dame under legendary coach Ara Parseghian and in 1973 the Fighting Irish beat Bear Bryant’s Alabama Crinson Tide squad to win the National Championship 24-23. Mike was also coaching with Ara when they upset Darrell Royal’s Texas Longhorns and ended the ‘Horns 30 game win streak.

Mike also coached in the Super Bowl with the Cincinnati Bengals against Bill Walsh’s 49ers and his special teams accounted for all the Bengals points.

Tony: Mike, who were the 3 biggest influences in your coaching career?

Mike: The first was Ted Osborne; he was an assistant coach when I was in high school and later when he was a head high school coach, he hired me as his assistant. He brought toughness to the program and really taught kids how to be hard-nosed. He was a Bear Bryant disciple. The second was Ara Parseghian. Ara was the best football coach ever. I played for Ara at Northwestern and he was so organized and demanded effort every day. Later he hired me at Notre Dame. And the third was Marty Shottenhiemer who hired me at Kansas City. Marty was a guy who really knew and emphasized all three phases of the game.

Tony: What is your philosophy of winning football games?

Mike:  The first thing is you have good players. So in college that means recruiting. Establishing relationships with high school coaches is critical to this process. That takes time. Secondly you must be team oriented. You can’t have selfish players or coaches, guys that have their own agenda. When we were at Notre Dame with Ara everyone co-operated and was on the same page. Thirdly, you have got to keep it simple so you can get your best players on the field and they can execute their assignments. By keeping it simple a great recruit can come in and contribute right away. Also your team will get good mastery of fundamentals.

Tony: As a head coach, you were at a “have not” at Eastern Michigan, no one has won at E.M.U.., what was your approach there?

Mike: First of all you must be sure that the school understands what it is going to take to turn the program around and that the administration is willing to take the steps needed to get the job done. Basically know what you’re getting into. Then you’ve got to win the high school coaches over. They have got to buy into your program and support it.  Then you must make a clear choice “to do it the right way”.

Tony: What do you mean by “doing it the right way”?

Mike: You always have the opportunity to cut a corner or bend a rule but I felt it was most important to run the program with integrity. Guys who take short cuts are just using the program as a stepping stone. The other thing I think is important in a turn – around situation is to win the students over. Give them a reason to stay on campus over the weekend.

Tony: You said Ara was the greatest coach you’d been around, why?

Mike: Ara could win with just tough, average guys. He believed in spreading the ball around and involving all the skill players in the offense. In 1973 we went strictly to the Wing T Offense. It fit Ara’s personality and fit our personnel. Tubby Raymond helped us with it and made Ara throw out all his old I formation plays and run strictly the Wing T.  It worked like a charm, we won the National Championship that year running a handful of plays but running them exceptionally well.  We could read in the press box what the defense was doing and call the appropriate play. For example in the Championship game against Alabama, they were double rolling their secondary to our motion so on that big pass Clements hit to seal the game, we called the counter bootleg pass and told the TE to move away from the safety and it worked perfectly. Ara also really liked having a Quarterback that could run. We didn’t run much option but Clements could run if he had the chance on the boots and waggles.

Tony: Was Ara involved in defense as well?

Mike: He was involved in all phases. When we played Texas in the Cottton Bowl the second time, Ara involved the entire staff in coming up with a defense for the Wishbone.

Tony: You played that mirror defense right?

Mike: What we did was this – first we covered their guards with our tackles and told them to drive their guards into the backfield. This caused them a lot of problems. Second we had our D.E.s attack their veer tackle and blow up the mesh point. These two things effectively ended their All American Steve Wooster’s day because the dive was dead. Then we mirrored our safeties on their two halfbacks and had them take pitch, the linebackers scraped to quarterback. We also covered both the guards and center in a Bears look as a change of pace. We won 31-6 and ended their 30 game win streak.

Tony: You coached in the Super Bowl with the Bengals, what was Sam Wyche like?

Mike: Sam was an offensive genius. He was the first to really use the no-huddle offense. If we saw the defense try to substitute we would automatically line up and go on the first sound and run our four vertical pass and we’d either get a completion or they would get flagged. Boomer was a great QB. We beat the Bills and the next year, guess what – they were using it.

Tony: You are known for special teams, what is your special team’s philosophy?

Mike: Attack, attack and attack. Attack the opposing team’s special teams. Give them no free plays, always cause them stress. Don’t give up any big plays and always secure the ball. Make sure your returners have great hands and won’t put the ball on the ground. The first thing I look for in a punt returner is a guy who can catch the ball; that is the most important thing.

Tony: What’s your advice to young coaches?

Mike: Whatever comes your way do it. Embrace the job you have. Become a well rounded coach: go to clinics, visit spring practices, listen and learn what other guys are doing. Learn about the kicking game and finally study the game of football.

Tony: Thanks for your time and your insight.

In 2011 the quest to the National title continued with Georgia Southern University’s second straight trip to the IAA playoffs. The Eagles finished the year with a 11-3 mark. One of those losses came from the Division IA BCS National Champions Alabama. In that loss Monken’s spread option attack creased the Crimson Tide defense for over 300 yards rushing. The Eagles had more yards rushing against Nick Saban’s defense than any team on the ‘Bama’s schedule. Late in the second half Georgia Southern trailed by only ten.

Monken learned the offense from option guru Paul Johnson at Hawaii, Georgia Southern, Navy and Georgia Tech. Success followed everywhere the option went. The Paul Johnson Spread Option Offense was the basis of the turnaround at all of those schools. Then Jeff did it a second time at Georgia Southern as the Head Coach.

Tony: Who were the three biggest influences in your career?

Jeff: First my Dad, Mike Monken, who was a high school coach at Joliet High School just outside of Chicago. Then my Grandmother Louise and my Mom, Nancy were both big influences on me.

Tony: How was the transition of going from a position coach to a head coach like? 

Jeff: It was very tough. I was Paul Johnson’s assistant for 13 years but he was always the offensive coordinator. He knew the offense better than anyone so he was the offensive coordinator. I learned from Paul that this offense was a great equalizer. The only time we had better players than our opponents was when we were hear when Paul was the head coach. But at Navy or Georgia Tech we always were the underdogs as far as talent.

Tony: What were some of the differences between being an assistant and a head coach?

Jeff: The main thing was the sense of responsibility for the whole program. Every aspect of the program is in your hands and your responsibility. The buck stops here. The second thing is that as an assistant it’s easy to make a lot of suggestions but as a head coach it’s up to you to make the tough decisions. The other thing is all the side stuff. Everyone wants your attention: marketing, fund raising and even keeping track of Twitter and social media.

Tony: What is your option philosophy? All option coaches differ a little in their approach even though we believe in the option. What’s your philosophy?

Jeff: Option football has a place in football. It’s a pure form of football. We take an elementary approach; we are going to try and score as much as we can. We want to make every possession count and score on a high percentage on those possessions. We are working on getting more speed in the offense so we can break more big plays like we did when Paul Johnson was the head coach and we won the National Championship. When you have the best players on the field and run an option attack it’s really explosive. We would have one or two play drives. Our average scoring drive was under two minutes.

Tony: So you’re not really interested in controlling the clock like Navy or the underdog option teams?

Jeff: A team like Navy has to control the clock. They almost beat south Carolina by controlling the clock and limiting possessions but we are not overly concerned.

Tony: What do you see as some of the new trends in offensive football and in particular, the option attack.

Jeff: More diversity in formations. This past season we were in the shotgun 30% of the time and it really helped us. The Shot Gun is easier to protect the passer, so you can get more diversity in your plays. The other advantage of the Shot Gun is that it negates very good two techniques.

Tony: How do people try and defend you? Is there a specific front or stunt that you are seeing a lot?

Jeff: Everyone has a philosophy of how to stop the triple option and our particular style of triple option but there is no common defense that we are seeing a lot of.

Tony: What about the future of Georgia Southern Football?

Jeff: The first thing is we have to bring in and develop great players. We lost 22 seniors from last year’s tem including our quarterback. So we have to get guys ready to play. The second thing is we have to play relentlessly. We want to really go out and play hard all the time. If we can do that we will win a lot of games.

Tony: Thanks for your time and I’m looking forward to Georgia Southern having another great year.

Coach Moore’s grooming of Peyton Manning was a work of art. In 2004 Manning set the NFL record for the highest pass efficiency in NFL history.

Tom also had extensive experience as a college coach spending time at Wake Forest, Georgia Tech and the University of Minnesota.

I had the good fortune of talking with Coach Moore at Jim McNally’s Western New York Football Clinic and it was a great experience. He is a true teacher of the game and a storehouse of knowledge of the game of football. The following are some things we discussed.

Tony: What are the most important traits you look for in a quarterback?

Coach Moore: The three things I look for are: number one decision making.  He has got to understand the offense and put the ball where it’s supposed to be and deliver it on time. Secondly, he has to master the speed of the game. The game gets faster when you from college to the NFL. And thirdly he must be mentally and physically tough enough to handle the long NFL season. A lot of QBs wilt as the season wears on.

Tony: What is your Offensive Philosophy?

Coach Moore: Simple is best. Do less but do it better. Out execute the defense and break their will. There comes a point in every game where one team breaks the other team’s will.  You do this by playing fast. The team that can play fast will break their opponent’s will. The only way you can play fast is if you know what you are doing. The way you get to that point is by having a few plays that you rep over and over again.  Most teams try and do too much.

Tony: What are some ways an offense can simplify?

Coach Moore: Do what your players do best. Have a right wide receiver and a left wide receiver so you double the amount of reps they get. With the Steelers Lynn Swann played right wide receiver and John Stallworth played left wide receiver.  Don’t do a lot of shifts because you are never sure how the defense is going to line up and you are not going to be able to check into a good play. Using audibles helps keep things simple because you only run certain plays vs. certain defenses so you don’t have to practice them against everything. Limit your play list and don’t waste reps in practice on plays you’ll never call. The smaller the play list the less waste you’ll have.

Tony: What about game planning?

Coach Moore: Do what you do. It starts with protection. You can’t win giving up sacks. If you get sacked in the NFL the chance of you scoring on that drive is 7%. So you can’t give up sacks. The Quarterback must direct the protections to pick up their rushers. You have to give him answers to their blitzes. We only use two formations 2 by 2 and 3 by 1. The reason is so we can protect the Quarterback. You have to have multiple protections so they can’t get a bead on it. We don’t worry about patterns until we have the protections in place. The ball must always be out of the Quarterback’s hands in less than three seconds if not it will be a sack.

Tony: What do you look at after protections?

Coach Moore: One thing I don’t do is self- scout, it’s a waste of time but it keeps the computer guys busy. You have to prepare and really coach up your red zone attack. The game changes in the Red Zone. You have to spend a lot of practice time on red zone offense. The next thing is first down. If you do a good job on first down, the other downs are easy. First down sets the tone for that series. I believe in using audibles so you have to school your QB to get you in the play you want. I also like to call repeats. For example I like to call 2 screen passes in a row or 2 Play action passes in a row or even 2 draws in a row. After you call the first one they don’t look for the second. The second play usually gains more than the first.

Tony: What last bit of advice can you give coaches?

Coach Moore: Be a teacher not a presenter. Learn how to teach technique. It doesn’t matter that you don’t know power point if you can teach technique. With all the technology today the best teachers win. Look at Belichick and Coughlin they are teachers. They have simple schemes but they can teach the techniques that make those schemes work. Designer offenses never last or win in the long run. A designer offense is just a collection of plays that have no connection with one another. I played for Forest Evashevski at the University of Iowa and we ran the Wing T & everything fit together. We had about 500 yards in the Rose Bowl. The guys who can teach players what they don’t know are coaches.

Tony: Coach – thanks for sharing these insights.

First some background on Charles Stebbins:

1. He served 6 years in the Pentagon
2. He served 4 years on the National Security staff dealing with everything to do with nuclear weapons.
3. He was the Executive Asst. to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs working on problems involving the Mid-East. He also worked on the re-organization of the Armed Forces.
4. He was corporate Vice President of Northrop- Grumman Corporation for 12 years.

He received numerous honors and awards during his military service and was just as successful in the Business world. I’ve known Dr. Stebbins as a “straight shooter” who still maintained a great sense of humor. He dealt with people compassionately and with a strong sense of justice. He has Leadership down pat.

Coaches can really benefit from advice from a Brigadier General who also has experience in the realm of business and in the world of Academia. So my question to Dr. Stebbins was: What are the five most important traits of good leadership?

Stebbins: The five key traits that are common in all areas of leadership are:

1. Integrity – people must trust the leader. And leaders must expect those they lead to have integrity as well. Trust is a two way street.
2. Take Care of Your People – develop your people so they can advance. This involves training so you can promote within the organization.
3. Delegate – pick the right people and let them do their job. It starts with hiring the right people and then turning them loose. Jimmy Carter’s weakness as a leader was his failure to delegate.
4. Communication – make sure everyone is on the same page. But no more than fifteen minute meetings and never meet to meet. Long meetings are not conducive to short attention spans.
5. Manage Your Ego – always remember who you are. You are no better than the next guy, so keep your ego in check. Once some people have some success they let it go to their heads and they forget about all those that helped them achieve that success.

These are the five most important traits of good leadership.

Certainly coaches can all see the lessons that apply to leading a football team. We all know that integrity is the foundation of any relationship. And training and preparing young coaches to assume greater responsibility is important in maintaining continuity in the program. Hire good people and letting them coach will only give you more time to be an effective head coach but also get more” buy –in” from your assistants. Communication is always important but preaching is for church not football. Keep it brief. And finally win or lose don’t tie your self- worth to the result. These are my thoughts on my interview with Charles Stebbins.

I’d like to thank Dr. Stebbins for his time and hope you get some ideas from this Q & A session.

DiNardo took the I-Bone to Nashville and led the Commodores of Vanderbilt to a successful stretch in the competitive SEC. Vandy was 5 -28 the 3 years prior to DiNardo’s arrival and 18 -28 with I-Bone with 2 upsets over top 25 teams.

The next stop was Baton Rouge to bring back the sagging LSU football program. DiNardo had immediate success and went to a bowl game in his first year. LSU had suffered through 6 straight losing seasos prior to DiNardo’s arrival. Gerry went 20 -4 in his next 2 seasons including a huge upset over #1 Florida.

Dinardo’s last stint was an short-lived shot at turning around Indiana in the Big 10. Dinardo was making progress but patience was not in abundance in Bloomington and Dinardo was dismissed after only 3 seasons. Ironically Bill McCartney during CU’s turDeptnaround was 1-10 in his 3rd season with the Buffs, but the administration stuck with him & it paid off in a National Championship.

Gerry is now involved in head-hunting for Universities’ Athletic Department searches. He’ll bring a great perspective to a very inexact process.

Tony: Gerry who were the three biggest influences in your coaching career?

Gerry: Ara Parseghian at Notre Dame. I saw Ara at his best. He was very charismatic and a great motivator. Bill McCartney was a first time Head Coach and I saw first hand how to turnaround a football program. Vinny O’Connor and his staff at St. Francis Prep were also big influences on me.

Tony: What was your Offensive Philosophy?

Gerry: It depends on the situation. If I am coaching at a “have not” situation like Vanderbilt, I like the Option, but if I’m at “have” school like LSU, I like a more traditional offense, because you want to attract potential NFL quarterbacks and skill players. I think the option hurts your chances of landing those type of recruits. At Indiana we ran a 2 back West Coast offense with a great OC, Al Borges but we should have been running the option. Not being an option team at IU was a mistake.

Tony: You are the architect of the I-Bone Offense, how did this happen?

Gerry: The I-Bone is a combination of The Wishbone Option Attack and the “I” downhill power attack. At Cu we had a spring where our starting Wishbone QB was out and our back up couldn’t run the option so we put in some “I” plays for the spring. When our option QB returned in the fall we had the option and the “I” package. We felt that if a team was playing soft vs. the option we could run at them with ISO & if they were pinching vs. the ISO we could run option. This gave us a great attack to the 3 & 5 technique side. I was always concerned with attacking the 3 & % technique side with just the triple.

Tony: This was prior to the coming of the mid-line.

Gerry: Mid-line hadn’t come along yet so we liked to attack the 3 & 5 with ISO. Our Philosophy evolved as the year went on & really came to fruition in Iowa City vs Hayden Fry & his Iowa Hawks. We upset Iowa and after the game Coach Fry said they couldn’t stop both the ISO and the Triple. So our philosophy of” easy to read, hard to block and hard to read, easy to block” came to be. The Iowa game was really our turning point at CU. If the defense was getting upfield we ran ISO & if they were pinching we ran option. It was a simple but great combination.

Tony: The thing I liked about the I-Bone is that you could feed the ball to your feature back inside or outside.

Gerry: You get the ball to a guy like Eric Bienhemy 30 times. You couldn’t do this in the Wishbone. Plus you attack the shade side or the eagle side of the defense.

Tony: With Paul Johnson’s success at Georgia Tech, do you think there will be a resurgence of the option?

Gerry: A.D.s will hire spread coaches who run the option but stay away from pure option guys. But if Paul Johnson is really successful, he might change the thought process.

Tony: What are the trends you see in college football?

Gerry: I see the Spread losing popularity because it is not good training for the NFL. If the NFL shuns spread QBs then it will be harder to recruit them. I see Florida going to a more conventional offense after Tebow leaves. I see teams going back to a 2 back West Coast passing game and a power run attack with the emphasis on being efficient on first down.

Tony: Great catching up & thanks for your input.

Tony: Who were your three biggest influences in your career?

Frank: The first would be Lou Holtz in regards to motivation and organization. Also Coach Holtz was influential in the development of our Split Back Veer. The second was Bo Schembechler who’s philosophy of: “run the ball and stop the run”-+ was our overall program philosophy. And I really enjoy John Wooden’s philosophy and his “Pyramid of Success”. I adopted the concept of worrying about your team first.

Tony: What is your Offensive Philosophy?

Frank: We want to shorten the game and keep our defense off the field. We want to avoid turnovers and win the kicking game. The Split Back Veer was the answer for us. In 1984 we went to The University of Houston and met with Bill Yeomen and Larry Zerlein and they taught us The Split Back Veer. Then we incorporated Homer Rice’s passing attack. I really enjoyed Coach Rice’s book: Homer Rice on The Triple Option Football. We liked his 3 wide receiver formation and that became our base formation. Then I added some of Lou Holtz’s philosophy of high percentage passing of screens, and delays. We also liked Coach Holtz’s Play action Pass ideas.

Tony: How big an ingredient was The Split Back Veer in your success at Mt. Carmel?

Frank: It was a major part of our success especially in the playoffs. This is a unique offense that our opponents only have 3 days to prepare for. Also by running the option we can run the ball and control the clock against bigger defensive lines. The Veer also keeps our defense off the field and shortens the game.

Tony: The option really is an equalizer because you turn the game into a fast break style of football and you get speed in space and takes the size factor out of the game.

Frank: The Option is all about ankles and numbers so it gives a disciplined team that can execute the ability to move the ball against a good defense and thus control the clock.

Tony: What wrinkles have you used in during your 25 year marriage with The Veer?

Frank: We’ve used 3 wide receivers and the dropped our HB down to get into a one back set. We also used the 2 TE set popularized by Jim Wacker. And we really adopted the use of motion to create a numbers advantage. We also developed the Wide Veer into our best play, and added Mid-line to compliment the inside veer. The mid-line really was a nice addition.

Tony: What are the trends you see in football?

Frank: I think more people are running some option. I also see that coaches are looking for athletic quarterbacks that have “escapability” The QB has got to be able to get you out of a jam.
Offense is very cyclical thinks go in cycles.

Tony: Do you still think Chicago Pizza is better than New York Pizza?

Frank: Absolutely! There’s no doubt about it, but I’ll give you cheesecake. New York cheesecake is better than Chicago cheesecake.

Frank was a very successful HS coach before becoming an assistant for Tom Osborne where he help guide Nebraska to 3 National Titles and 11 Conference Championships. He took over for Osborne in 1998 and led the Cornhuskers to a 58-19 record. He had more wins in his first 6 seasons than either Tom Osborne or the legendary Bob Devaney.

After his run at UN Frank took over the Ohio University football team in 2005 & gave the Bobcats instant credibility and led them to a bowl game in only his second season. His overall record as a Head Coach stands at 81-45.

Frank Solich is probably the most underrated football coach in the history of college football. He was light years ahead of his time in running the ball from the shotgun. I know I borrowed many ideas from Frank that we use in our Triple Gun Offense. His offense at Nebraska combined elements from many styles of offense that he married together into a diverse offense that could attack a defense many ways. He was also an outstanding play caller with a knack of dialing up the right play at the right time.

Tony: Who were the biggest influences in your coaching career?

Frank: I had 2 high school coaches that were both big influences on me. The first was Jack Zebcar who was well ahead of his time as far as weight lifting is concerned. That became a big part of my philosophy. The 2nd coach was Carl Falavine who also had a positive influence. Bob Devaney was a great communicator and a great person. Tom Osborne had a completely different personality but was just as effective. I admired Tom for all he was and all he stood for. The biggest lesson this taught me was you could be effective regardless of your personality and to be yourself. The other person who really influenced me was Wally McNaught who was the head basketball coach at the 2nd high school coaching job I had. He really taught me about being a head coach. He was really dedicated to the kids and committed to the program.

Tony: That’s really interesting Jim Valvano was a big influence on my coaching career. What’s your offensive philosophy?

Frank: It starts with a toughness mindset. You have got to be able to line up and make the tough yards. The kids have to believe in it. I believe in being multiple with a strong running game and a complimentary play action passing attack. You have to also develop a drop- back passing game. A running Quarterback is a key ingredient to successful offense. He has to have mobility.

Tony: You were the first coach to really make The Shot Gun a running formation. And you had a very diverse attack at Nebraska that could attack you in many ways, how did you get it all practiced.

Frank: Reps, we had enough players to get two stations going at once and we just a tremendous amount of reps. We try to practice our whole offense every day. We also relied on banked reps from having the same system in place. You can always add things to the passing game; a new route or pattern, but you must master the run game. That really takes a lot of reps.

Tony: I always considered you a great play caller, I used to love watching your Huskers against Oklahoma and you’d come up with a naked or a reverse at a key point to get a big 1st down. What is your approach to calling plays?

Frank: The first thing is to study tendencies and try to find an opponent’s weakness or something you could exploit. Then pick out something from the playbook that will take advantage of that area. Then we decide if there’s a wrinkle we could add and if it fits our scheme we might add that. We try to install a big enough play list that we have answers available to us so we don’t have to keep adding things every week and we can get good at what we do. We try to always have wrinkles available to keep a drive alive. Against those Oklahoma teams you couldn’t just line up & run the ball down the field so you had to have some variety in your game plan to keep them off balance. But we always stressed a physical downhill running attack. You have got to be able to run the ball to control the clock.

Tony:What trends do you see in college football?

Frank: Coaches do a great job in developing new ideas so offense is always evolving. The shot gun option game has really emerged. The option game has really come back. Paul Johnson’s success at Georgia Tech has really opened some eyes and Cal Poly did some amazing things last season. Even non-option coaches are including some option into their package. There is a very multiple approach to offensive football in today’s game.

Tony: The only people that ever stopped the option was ESPN. Frank thanks for your time and good luck next season.

Frank: Thanks Tony

Tony: Who were the three biggest influences in your coaching career?

Ted: Of course Tubby Raymond would be number one, then Dave Nelson and Jim Camp who gave me my 1st job at George Washington University.

Tony: What’s your philosophy of offense? I know the Wing T would be the base but what was your overall offensive philosophy?

Ted: We always wanted a run/pass balance. We were Wing T based but looked for a 70/30 run/pass ratio, maybe even 65/35. We always looked to create defensive conflicts; plays that appeared to be the same but were different. I look to create blocking scheme conflicts to the front seven, so a blocking scheme may look like the same scheme to a defender but instead of kicking him out you log him.

For example on the Belly G and the Buck Sweep the blocking looks the same but attacks different areas. I like to use influence blocking like on the “gut” play where you pull both guards as you would on the Buck Sweep then give the ball to the fullback up the middle. When you create defensive conflicts the defense can’t play as fast and you don’t have to have a great line to move the ball. The other part of my philosophy is sequence – sequence in blocking schemes and backfield action. Misdirection disrupts a defenses run/pass keys. We also liked to create flanks where we could out leverage the defense to get outside.

Tony: Many Wing T principles are key parts of today’s “new age” offenses. For example Herb Hand the OC of the high powered Tulsa Attack told me the Buck Sweep was their best play. The Wake Forest Orbit Attack has Wing T elements. What was the evolution of the Delaware Wing T?

Ted: Well we started with the basic wing T with the Buck Sweep series and then gradually evolved from there. We brought you in to put in the option game. This was an easy addition because you were in 3 backs and we were a 3 back offense. This was a great combination the triple option with our basic wing t package. Then we added some of the West Coast Passing game. We used their quick game to open the offense up, we used a simplified modified version but it was very effective. Then the last element we added was the Jet sweep which we added to be able to get outside without running the option. So we could run wide without involving the QB. If I was coaching today I would add the Rocket Toss play that Paul Johnson runs. Both the Jet sweep & the Rocket are easier to run than the Buck Sweep and still give you the opportunity to attack the perimeter. I still love the Buck Sweep, Gut and waggle sequence.

Tony: What are the trends you see evolving in today’s game?

Ted: I think defenses have caught up with pure one back zone attacks. So now teams are going back to more 2 back Power & Iso Attacks but now they are doing it from different formations and with different personnel. For example Nevada is doing it out of the “Pistol” Formation using an “H” back as the kick out guy instead of a fullback. The emergence of hybrid players is a trend. The Tight End/Fullback or what you do using wide receivers as running backs these are hybrid positions that allow you to get in a lot of formations without substituting. This can be tough matching up on defense. So a guy with an imagination can cause a defense fits by just lining up. If I were coaching today I would recruit: an athletic QB, a proto-type TE, a Wing T fullback (a runner who could execute a kick out & Iso block) and the rest of the skill to be WR/RBs.

Tony: With the success Paul Johnson has had do you think the option is making a comeback?

Ted: I think it was making a comeback but Paul has speeded it up. The DC’s worst nightmare is an athletic QB because they can’t account for him. In the Pros they don’t have to worry about a QB running so they can play man under & zone blitz. A three back offense is a huge advantage as far as sealing the edge so the Georgia Tech style offense is going to look good to a struggling program. But today an athletic QB is a must.

Tony: What advice would you give young coaches?

Ted: Coaching is a tough demanding job but also very rewarding. Develop fundamental principles of how you interact with others. And develop your own philosophy and stick to it. Don’t go with the latest “hot” new thing, don’t be a fad guy. Develop a system and stick with it.

Tony: Who were the three biggest influences in your coaching career?

James: Denny Douds at ESU was my coach and 1st big influence, then Ralph Friedgen, and Mike Sherman at Green Bay.

Tony: What is your offensive philosophy?

James: It’s The West Coast Offense organizationally but it has pieces of Don Coryell and Ralph Friedgen in it. I believe in the Power Run Game from one back or two back formations. My two favorite run are the Power O play & the Zone play with a lead blocker. My favorite passes are Four Verticals and the Flanker Drive Pass which features the Z doing a shallow cross.

Tony: What are the trends you see developing in college football.

James: I see the end of “pure systems”. Teams are combining parts of different systems to come up with hybrid systems. For a while everyone was in love with the Spread but as defenses saw more of it they started to defend it much more effectively. Now with the success of Paul Johnson at Georgia Tech you’ll see a lot more teams returning to the option or at least having it as part of their package. Things are very cyclical.

Tony: How do you see the role of an “athletic quarterback in college football today?

James: There is no doubt that having a QB that can make plays is a tremendous asset to an offense. Even if he’s not a great runner if he is mobile he can extend plays & buy the receivers time to get open. It also really helps the offensive line with their pass protection.

Tony: What if you don’t have an athletic quarterback?

James: Then you have to surround him with guys who can make plays. You have to surround him with playmakers and coach him up to make good decisions.

Tony: How did playing quarterback help you as a receiver coach and how did coaching receivers help you as a quarterback coach?

James: Playing QB helped me in decision making. And coaching receivers helped me learn the game from their perspective. I learned how to get open against various coverages. Then I learned how it all fits together. How the pattern and the protection must all fit. Timing & precision are keys to the pass game.

Tony: How will the “coach in waiting” status affect you?

James: It makes me see the big picture. Sometimes OCs are so interested in gaining yards & scoring points to further their career that they are too aggressive and actually hurt the team. As a head coach you have to take the approach of how can we win not how many points can we score or how many yards can we gain.

Tony: Any advice to young coaches?

James: #1Have a great work ethic – you are in control of how hard you work. #2Always have a positive mental attitude no one likes being around a complainer. #3Be competitive – compete in everything you do. #4 Sacrifice now for things you want later in life. The position & the experience are more important than the pay.

Tony: James thanks for the interview & best of luck this season.

James: Thanks for having me on your website.