Please Tell Me--Why Go Wild Over the Wildcat?

Is it because we have grown tired of talking about and cheering for the exciting and effective one-back, shotgun formation, spread offense? Or is it because we don't know any better and something new to us just has to be the buzz?

I am talking, actually don't want to be talking about, the Wildcat offense--the latest gadget/innovation that has risen to popularity amongst fans and sports pundits faster than you can say West Coast Offense. There is some uncertainty as to who really gets credit for its modern day origin (or re-birth). When current Carolina Panthers running back DeAngelo Williams was tearing it up collegiately at Memphis a few years ago he said they started it. At about the same time when Darren McFadden was brutalizing SEC defenses at Arkansas, before heading onto the Raiders, they brought a lot of attention to their version, the Wild Hog. In the NFL, supposedly the Dolphins want to claim the innovation title by having used Ronnie Brown in this attack.

So what's this all about? Folks, it's really much ado about nothing. I'll tell you why.

Way back, pre-WWII days, when football was a much simpler game and played without face-masks there was an offense where the ball was snapped directly to the running back. Heck, even in 1967, when I was a chubby 12 year old playing tackle football for my team, the Geneva Packers, our QB got hurt and couldn't take a direct snap from the center, who happened to be me. Our coach decided we would just snap it directly to the backs and off they went. I certainly didn't think that was a big deal. Was I a party to pioneering the Wildcat offense in 1967? Maybe. Who knew?

Decades later, in an effort to help the quarterback read his receivers and the defensive pass coverage better, along with pre-aligning him for a drop-back pass, the Shotgun formation permeated the game. Today it is a part of every offensive playbook on the college and pro level, and most high schools use it to some degree.

So WHY ARE people going wild over the Wildcat? It is primarily a run formation where someone besides the QB lines up in the shotgun formation and takes the snap from center and runs the ball. Big deal. Some offenses try to deceive the opponents by lining the QB up as a wide receiver and use the WR or RB as the QB to execute this "wild, exotic formation".

Bottom line, the Wildcat formation is nothing more than a shotgun formation that has someone besides the QB getting the ball and running it. Yes, that's it--there is no more. When Houston Nutt was head coach at Arkansas he found that McFadden could also pass the ball pretty well. So, run and pass he did. That was something different. That was something effective as well as exciting. That was something that kept defensive coaches up at night wondering how to defend it.

We are only two weeks into the college football season and one week into the NFL season. Yet, in pre-game shows, during the game broadcasts themselves, and throughout the week, chatter surrounding the game is bound to bring up some reference to the Wildcat. Please, find something worthwhile to talk about.

Growing up, I remember young kids would get a little scared at some of the Sci-Fi movies and they would be comforted by an adult or older sibling saying, "Don't worry, it's just a movie." For opposing defenses, unless the offense proves they can, and will, pass the ball effectively out of the Wildcat formation, I send similar words of comfort your way--"Don't worry, it's just another run play."

NOW WAIT JUST A PIGSKIN PICKIN' MINUTE

As we head into the second week of the college football season there are some games that pose interesting match-ups and cause for concern for the betting line favorites.

Wake Forest is a field goal favorite at home against Stanford. I believe Stanford is a certainly a program on the rise. The only thing keeping me from jumping in with both feet for this one is the fact that as a team on the rise, they have to be early risers for this game! The Demon Deacons showed their smarts by scheduling this as a Noon (EDT) kickoff, translating to a 9 a.m. kickoff for the west coast-based Cardinal. If the Cardinal can get up and get moving on such an early schedule I still like them to upset the Deacs.

The Iowa Hawkeyes and are almost a touchdown favorite as they travel to face their in-state rival Iowa State Cyclones. Coach Kirk Ferentz is firmly implanted for the foreseeable near future as Iowa’s coach, but had he not recently signed a new contract this game would be exerting great pressure on him and his team. The Cyclones have won 4 of the last 7 in the series, but they are coming off of a dreadful 2-10 season last year. Iowa stumbled around last week and had to block two consecutive field goal attempts on the game’s last plays to avoid the biggest of upsets against Division I-AA Northern Iowa. In a lot of pre-season picks they are a sleeper for the Big Ten title race. My thoughts are this is a must for Iowa to show what they have in preparation for Arizona and Penn State in the upcoming weeks and I look for them to do so.

Notre Dame travels to the Big House in Ann Arbor as a field goal favorite. Even though Michigan’s win over Western Michigan last week deflected some of the negative press surrounding Wolverines coach Rich Rodriguez, only wins over big-time programs will earn him the good graces of M Go Blue loyalists. My hunch is that ND’s defense will come after the young Michigan quarterbacks early and try to unnerve them—kind of like Mike Tyson throwing a bunch of bombs against a heavyweight opponent right from the opening bell, as opposed to the proverbial “feeling each other out” first round. ND’s offense can throw it deep and accurately, as well as run it efficiently enough to be respectable. Golden Domers should leave Ann Arbor happy.

Army is a slim one point favorite at home vs. Duke. On the surface, this game certainly doesn’t draw any national attention. But, if the Black Knights of the Hudson can defeat Duke in this battle of have-nots, they will move to 2-0 and be well on their way to a winning season. Optimism is running high at West Point, not because of the new option attack being employed—although that plays a role—but, (don’t tell anyone) due to their super-soft schedule. Army opened with a terrible Eastern Michigan, they have a mediocre Duke team this week, and have such other traditionally below average teams like Iowa State, Tulane, Temple, VMI and North Texas further down the road. Legendary West Point gridiron figures that have passed on must be turning in their graves looking at this cream-puff schedule. Let’s go with Duke in a big upset!

JUST FOR FUN--In the blowout city games of the weekend, who will score more points and have a bigger spread in their victory...Texas at Wyoming, Alabama hosting Florida International, Florida hosting Troy, or Boise State welcoming Miami of Ohio? The Longhorns and Tide are favored by 34, the Gators by 36, and Boise State by 37!

Think of it; we are talking about a five (5) touchdown difference here.

College Football Season Openers Not What They Used To Be

It's really kind of sad that the start of the college football just ain't what it used to be. With the NCAA adding a 12th game to the schedules back in 2006 athletic administrators were scrambling to fill that extra date, and with little time to do so. Thanks to that, the much-anticipated season kickoff just doesn't measure up to expectations.

Division I schools need every win they can get to keep their post-season hopes alive. Why would they want to schedule a potential loss when there is little reward for doing so? A win is a win, right?

When the scheduling race kicked in there was a tremendous "supply & demand" issue. D-I schools needed a game, and a win, and smaller schools were happy to deliver--at a price. Division I-AA (aka Football Championship Series) and smaller D-I schools (whose conference champ does not get an automatic slot in the post-season Bowl Championship Series) pocket a minimum of $400,000 for filling those dates. That's why we see names roll across the scoreboard that seem pretty foreign to a lot of football fans.

A sampling from I-AA would be the likes of Charleston Southern, Wofford, Liberty, and a whole bunch of directional schools. Just some of the D-I schools supplementing their budgets with the scheduling bonanza are Florida International, Florida Atlantic, Troy, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana-Monroe and more directional schools. These are not household names, but with the pressure on coaches and administrators to deliver a winner, schools like these will continue to dot the early pre-conference schedule for the major schools.

Seeing these "match-ups" (using the term loosely) makes me remember when there were many less bowl games and the bowls were tied to conference champions and a handful of at-large teams with great records. If you didn't win the Big Ten or Pac-8 you didn't go to the Rose Bowl or just about any other bowl. If you didn't win the old Southwest Conference and go to the Cotton Bowl chances were you would be staying home for the holidays. The same goes for the Big 8 and the Orange Bowl.

Unfortunately, at the risk of not getting to a bowl, or not reaching an upper tier/bigger name bowl that will provide for larger pay day and more exposure for their programs, or possibly even playing for the national title, the early season weekends with a full slate of great inter-sectional games has passed. This past weekend there were a handful of head to head early conference clashes and a couple of border or intra-state rivalry games that sparked some interest. But, aside from that all we had was Oklahoma St.-Georgia, Oklahoma-BYU, Alabama-Va Tech, and LSU-Washington with Florida State-Miami yet to come, as of this writing.

Let's take a look at some high profile football programs' schedules over the years--this year and then 5, 10, 20 & 30 years ago. Penn St. has only been in a conference since 1993, so they drop out as the years go further back. See for yourself how the scheduling philosophy, based upon degree of difficulty, has changed (or not) for these teams.

2009

FLORIDA--Charleston Southern, Troy, Florida International, Florida St.

MICHIGAN--W. Michigan, Notre Dame, E. Michigan, Delaware State

PENN ST.--Akron, Syracuse, Temple, E. Illinois

TEXAS--Louisiana-Monroe, Wyoming, UTEP, Central Florida

LSU--Washington, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana Tech, Tulane

USC--San Jose St., Ohio State, Notre Dame

2004

FLORIDA--E. Michigan, Middle Tennessee, Florida St.

MICHIGAN--Miami (OH), Notre Dame, San Diego St.

PENN ST.--Akron, Boston College, Central Florida

TEXAS--North Texas, Rice, Arkansas

LSU--Oregon St., Arkansas State, Troy

USC--Virginia Tech, Colorado St., BYU, Notre Dame

1999

FLORIDA--Western Michigan, Central Florida, Florida St.

MICHIGAN--Notre Dame, Rice, Syracuse

PENN ST.--Arizona, Akron, Pitt, Miami

TEXAS--N.C. State, Stanford, Rutgers, Rice

LSU--San Jose St., North Texas, Houston

USC--Hawaii, San Diego St., Notre Dame, Louisiana Tech

1989

FLORIDA--Louisiana Tech, Memphis, New Mexico, Florida St.

MICHIGAN--Notre Dame, UCLA, Maryland

TEXAS--Colorado, SMU, Penn St.

LSU--Texas A&M, Florida St., Ohio U.

USC--Illinois, Utah St., Ohio St., Notre Dame

1979

FLORIDA--Houston, Ga Tech, Tulsa, Miami

MICHIGAN--Notre Dame, Kansas, California

TEXAS--Iowa St., Missouri, Rice

LSU--Colorado, Rice, USC

USC--Texas Tech, Minnesota, LSU, Notre Dame

How Lucky White Sox Fans Are To Have Ozzie Guillen

In our present world of sports journalism coaches and athletes are prepped on how to avoid making controversial or inflammatory public statements. They calculate their choice of words like a skilled liar on the witness stand. But, shining through all of that dull, lifeless, gray blah-blah-blah is a beacon of light.

Ladies and gentlemen, for your enjoyment let me present Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen. Whether you follow major league baseball closely or not, you have to love the entertainment Guillen provides. He’s certainly not like Casey Stengel, who for decades was the lovable “Old Professor” of baseball, known for his cock-eyed views on life as well as his quotes. Casey often left listeners with their heads tilted and brows wrinkled in their effort to comprehend what he had just said.

You may know that Guillen concluded his playing career in 2000 after having played 12 of his 16-years as a shortstop for the White Sox. In 2004 he got his shot to manage in the majors by being named skipper of his beloved Pale Hose. Just one year later Guillen became the first Latin-born manager to lead his team to a World Series title.

A native of Venezuela, Guillen has a passion for the game, his Latin blood runs hot, and he is not afraid to speak his mind. That’s what makes Guillen both entertaining and refreshing at the same time.

Unlike Stengel, there is nothing left to interpretation with Guillen. It’s all pretty plain and clear. For example, in early August, after Guillen’s team had three of their batters hit by opposing pitchers in one game, he went on a rant. He put the rest of the American League on notice. You hit one of his guys, you’ll pay. Not only will it be an eye for an eye, but it might be a two for one proposition! Guillen went so far as to say that he doesn’t care if the league fines him for ordering his pitchers to retaliate for his players being hit. He was essentially taunting future opposing teams, as well as the league office. When I saw the video clip of this it reminded me of one scene in the silly comedy movie classic, “STRIPES”--when Francis “Psycho” Soyer repeatedly threatened Bill Murray, John Candy, and the other military goofs in the barracks, “If you touch me or my stuff…I’ll kill ya.” As for Guillen, if you throw at him or his team, you’re going down!

Last weekend the Yankees swept the ChiSox in a 3-game set at Yankee Stadium and each of the games provided opportunity for Guillen to sound off. When the Sox were limited to just one hit and committed three errors in a 3-0 loss to the Bronx Bombers Guillen offered this summary:

"I'm embarrassed,'' Guillen said. ''And everybody in that room should be embarrassed. If they're not embarrassed, they got the wrong job or they're stealing money from baseball. I feel like I'm stealing the money from [board chairman] Jerry [Reinsdorf]. And that's a shame. When you got more errors than hits, you better look yourself in the mirror and start second-guessing yourself.

''I was looking at the Little League game this morning, and they were playing better than we did. It was more fun ... this is not major-league baseball. Sorry.''

''If we had a B Game against us, we might tie,'' Guillen said. ''Nobody is going to win. I feel that way, and I hope my players and coaches feel the same way.”

After another loss to the Yankees, where Chicago suffered from poor base-running, Guillen said, ''We had an opportunity to score some runs, we're not scoring runs. I never in my life, I don't remember someone getting thrown out at the plate 3-2 [count] with two outs. If you're a manager, you wonder what's going to be next. But when you see that [stuff], you're shaking your head like wow.

''We got picked off at third base once to lose a game, we got picked off at second base then we got thrown out on 3-2 with two out at the plate by 20 feet. Well, I don't give a [darn] who is managing this ballclub, they better check their [butt]. What are we going to do next? What should we do?''

The most gut-wrenching loss was when New York’s Robinson Cano delivered a devastating blow to Guillen’s club with a game-winning 3-run homer with two outs in the 10^th inning. The Sox skipper brought in lefty Randy Williams to pitch the 10^th. Williams was able to get both of the first two hitters, Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez, out but back-to-back walks brought up Cano. Guillen lamented, ''What did he do, walked the next two on eight pitches, got behind Cano, game's over,'' Guillen said. ''That's the way we roll right now.''

The White Sox are fading from the Central Division pennant race, trailing the Detroit Tigers. They do have six remaining games going head to head with the Tigers, but Guillen is far from positive in his attitude of making the most of those six opportunities to catch Detroit. “What, they think we are going to sweep Detroit? They are full of (crap),” Guillen said in a Chicago Sun-Times story. “Don’t think Detroit is going to come in and say ‘Here it is.’ They are playing well, better than we do. It’s not going to be easy. If we continue to play like that, I don’t care how many games we play against Detroit, we can play 20 games against them, it’s not going to help.”

These are mere snippets of what goes on regularly for those who follow the Chicago South Siders. How lucky the people of Chicago are to be treated to this after each and every of the 162 games on the schedule.

In recent years it has become very unbecoming for coaches and players to air their dirty laundry in public, to throw someone else under the bus, or to throw gasoline on a small campfire. But, for those of us who enjoy a good rant, who appreciate people that wear emotions on their sleeve, for those of us who need a refreshing change from all the political correctness and “play nice together in the sand box” public people, Ozzie Guillen gives us all of that and more.

Where Are All The Good Arms?

Where are all of the quality arms? With the home stretch of the baseball season being played out daily and the approach of the football season picking up steam, has it occurred to you that there are a shortage of quality arms in the two major pro sports that require them?

Baseball aficionados will tell you that most teams don’t have enough quality starting pitchers. In this day of the 5-man rotation, most teams can muster a number one, a two and sometimes a three. But, most teams struggle to fill the fourth and fifth spots with someone who can give them a decent chance to win a game.

MLB teams are always looking to upgrade their starting rotation. Due to the lack of durable, strong starting pitching, there is a great premium put on pitchers to “set-up” (8^th inning) and “close” (9^th inning) at the back end of games. We all know that great closers make the same millions of dollars for their 1-inning appearance as the great starting pitchers who throw about four-times the amount of total innings over the course of a full season.

When you think of it, professional baseball in America draws talent from a global pool. There are guys from Mexico, South America, Asia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Canada and Australia-- and the 30 MLB teams still can’t find enough quality arms!

Moving to the gridiron…if there were enough quality arms in the NFL, not just average arms, we wouldn’t be hearing of the never-ending saga of everyone’s favorite (kidding) gray-beard, Brett Favre, returning to play. The Minnesota Vikings must feel strongly that the three quarterbacks on their roster were just not good enough to play winning football. Being on the threshold of the regular season, more than a handful of teams are still struggling to declare a starting quarterback. At this stage of the pre-season all teams want to have starting positions locked up so they can fine-tune preparation for the games that really count, the regular season.

Due to their relative lack of productivity and efficiency to this point, the 49-ers played “Eenie, Meanie, Miney, Moe” and settled on Shaun Hill over Alex Smith. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are holding off until after their third pre-season game to choose the man that will take the helm. Byron Leftwich and Luke McCown are currently leading rookie Josh Freeman in that QB derby.

In Detroit, where the Lions matched the Motor City automobile industry for having an incredibly bad 2008, rookie Matt Stafford, despite being the #1 pick in the entire draft, is not quite ready to take over for a recycled Duante Culpepper. Because of philosophical differences in Denver between Jay Cutler and the Broncos new 30-something head coach Josh McDaniels, the Broncos traded away one of the game’s strongest young arms in Cutler to the Bears for a very average Kyle Orton. To illustrate the level of mediocrity, Orton is in a battle with Chris Simms, who was once a promising 2^nd round pick in Tampa Bay. Simms has thrown only 494 passes in seven years in the league. You can do the math based on a 16-game schedule over that span. He was an emergency back-up in Tennessee for just part of last season.

The NY Jets have had a neck and neck race between first round pick Mark Sanchez and fourth-year man Kellen Clemens. It looks like Sanchez at the wire by a nose. Regardless of who gets the nod, the Jets are looking up at the rest of the AFC East when it comes to who is lining up under center. Lastly, in Cleveland the Pumpkin Head loyalists are still waiting to see if it’s going to be the former Golden Domer, Brady Quinn, or the less-acclaimed Derek Anderson. As goes an old silly saying, "same difference."

To sum it up, it seems that we have too many pro teams in both baseball and football to effectively stock the rosters with quality arms who can win games. If that is not the case, why do we keep hearing the same stories each year about not enough good pitching and not enough quality quarterbacks?

If your team happens to have a quality player regularly throwing the ball, consider yourself fortunate. There are many fans who are envious.

When a Coach Goes From First Name to Last Name

It’s very interesting to observe how, over the course of time, football coaches are addressed in the media, as well as in water cooler talks among fans, and on sports talk radio. There’s a potential evolution that could take place depending on the success factor.

Case in point is in Tampa Bay where a 32-year old rookie head coach is just a couple of pre-season games away from coaching his first NFL game that really counts. Raheem Morris had coaching responsibility for the Buccaneers defensive backs solely by himself for just two years. He was a defensive quality control coach and an assistant to the secondary coach for a few of years prior to that. In between he did run the defense at Kansas State University for just one year. Following the departure of the Bucs long-time defensive coordinator, Monte Kiffin, immediately following the 2008 season, Morris was named to succeed him as the lead defensive coach for the 2009 season.

Then in a very surprising move, Tampa Bay ownership canned Jon Gruden as head coach in February and all of the sudden Morris went from not having coached a down as the defensive coordinator in the NFL to being the new head coach.

As an assistant coach, those around the Bucs practice fields knew him as Raheem or Rah. Media types also knew him by Raheem or Rah. He looks as young, or younger, and is as young or younger, than those with whom he is charged to lead as their head coach.

A question in my mind is when does Raheem become Coach Morris, and when does he become just Morris?

Right now it’s honeymoon time. The Bucs have not yet lost a game that counts on their 2009 record. He can be personable, quotable, and project an attitude of having fun while also being demanding. The players swear by him, love playing for him.

That’s all well and good. Right now there’s a buzz in Buccaneer Land that people like to hear. That’s because Morris is the “anti-Gruden.” Gruden, who has been scooped up by ESPN to serve as their Monday Night Football analyst and has looked good doing so, was often a little surly and curt with the media. He didn’t have the same music on his IPod as the players, like Morris, nor did he chest bump and celebrate big plays like Morris did with his defensive backs.

Despite winning a Super Bowl with the Bucs in 2002-03, his first year as their 39-year old head coach, Gruden never fulfilled the fans’ and ownership’s dreams of regularly making future play-off or Super Bowl runs. In the next six years they made the play-offs twice, losing in the first round each time. Therefore, he was let go for that reason and also so the Bucs could make a 180-degree turn in leadership.

If you were tuned into media talk and street banter the last couple of years, it was always “Gruden this” and “Gruden that.” This is my take on how coaches are addressed publicly. For such a long time it was common to refer to the head coach with some degree of respect by either “Coach Last Name”, or simply by using his first and last name. When things start to go sour, then it turns to last name only—kind of the way an old gym teacher talks down to a goofy kid reminding him to tie his sneakers.

Well, Morris actually is a step ahead of everyone. He has three possible levels to work through. He is already talked about like everyone’s buddy—Rah or Raheem. When it begins to slide a bit and people need to start being critical of him, they will get a little more serious and evolve to Coach Morris. Then, when they are really upset and frustrated he will just be referred to as Morris.

This is not a slam on Morris; it’s a slam on all those who create images for the average fan by the way they portray people in the media. Sadly, most average fans don’t have enough information to make their own judgment or create their own educated view, so they latch on to one they may have read on the internet or heard over the AM sports talk shows, which was created by some other person with hardly anymore insight than Joe Fan.

Buc fans and followers, let’s not speculate, get too high or too low as to how great or not so great the new 32-year old coach is. In just a few weeks you will begin to see for yourself. Make believe you live in Missouri, “the Show Me state”, and let things play out. Then you can form your own opinion.

No Pressure on Gators for Championship Repeat?

Pressure to perform at a very high level while fulfilling lofty expectations can weigh extremely heavy. Pressure itself cannot be seen. It’s intangible. Though we can’t touch it, it’s there.

If you have any role in the Florida Gators football program you would have a hard time not feeling the bulky burden of pressure placed upon the team this fall. Coming off of a national championship last year, their second in three years, the Gators are prohibitive favorites to repeat this year. Pressure is having to fulfill the expectations of so-called media experts, college football pollsters, a fanatical base of alumni and boosters, as well as the casual Saturday afternoon couch potato fan—and to do so on a national stage.

Week in and week out, beginning Sept. 5^th, Florida will play with a giant target on their back. Gator opponents will play David going against the Goliath Gators. In order for the Gators to satisfy all of the above, anything short of another BCS title will be construed as a failure.

There’s a commonly employed response that pops out when athletes or coaches are asked about dealing with pressure, regardless of the source or nature. “There’s no greater pressure than that which we put on ourselves to be successful.” That’s a standard line from the class, “Intro on How to Speak to the Media.”

But if you are a Gator, given Tim Tebow, a senior quarterback who was the 2007 Heisman Trophy Award winner, and a defense that returns intact from last year’s national championship team, the assumption in the college football atmosphere for a Gator repeat is as thick as hot, humid July afternoon in Gainesville.

After an extremely brief respite last January the Gators were hard back at it in the weight room and early morning conditioning workouts. The other Division I programs were, too. But the other 116 teams were not carrying around the already established weight that Florida had on their collective shoulders—another championship.

The athletic calendar moved into spring and the Gators worked their way through their 15 allowed spring practices. They adjusted to two new offensive coaches and a returning coach got acclimated to being the offensive coordinator/play-caller, not just the line coach. Soon spring became summer. Strength and conditioning coach Mickey Marotti was charged with continuing to keep the hammer down and demand more than the Gators had ever given. With great veteran team leaders showing the way, the summer was deemed successful.

In an article published in the New York Times, Coach Urban Meyer was asked to comment on the mood around the football offices. He was quoted as saying, “There’s more urgency and paranoia around here now. Everyone knows it. This is a good team.”

Whether it’s a player or a coach—when there is that kind of pressure, it is ubiquitous. It is all around, all the time, and it cannot be escaped. It’s at the grocery store while they stand in line to check out. It’s at the gas station as they try to just look at the numbers rolling along on the pump rather than make eye contact with on-lookers. It’s at the local casual dining restaurant when all they want to do is enjoy a peaceful meal with family or friends.

You can be assured that now, with just about two weeks until kickoff, Florida players and coaches are anxious to explode onto the field and begin to pursue another dream season. It’s been a long off-season, approximately eight months, between their last game when they hoisted the national title trophy in Miami and when they will soon kick it off against Charleston Southern.

Woe poor Charleston Southern. You have no idea how much pent up energy and excitement will be unleashed—not due to anything you have ever done to deserve this, but simply because you are the first step along another possible special journey for Florida. Pressure, what pressure? As coach/athlete-speak says, “There’s no greater pressure than that which we put on ourselves.”

Don’t believe it.