2001 Week 5
October 18, 2001
This split squad trend is starting to get out of hand. Earlier this season Miami sent one team to Ann Arbor and another to State College and managed to win one and lose one.
Last weekend FSU tried the same thing, sending one squad to play at Colorado State (where they won narrrowly) and having one squad stay home at Luther Campbell 2 Live Crew Stadium to play Miami.
I bet Coach Bowden thought Miami was going to go with the split squads too, but Coach Davie fooled him and had the entire Miami squad there and really thumped the Gators.
Someone needs to look into this split squad trend before it goes any further (and before I lose some more bets). Someday it may spread across to the pro ranks and you'll see Ricky Neuheisel's Washington team playing the Washington Redskins' schedule (and maybe winning a game or two).
I want to take this time to make a correction: Chris Simms is not the son of Aggie great Ken Simms. My apologies for the mistake. Chris is actually the son of broadcaster Phil Simms, which makes Chris the nephew of Phil's brother Billy Simms.
Stanford's off to a pretty good start this year. That's always been one of my favorite campuses, the lovely and unique architecture there makes me ready to order a Burrito Supreme.
Stanford has had a lot of controversy over the years due to their various school nicknames. At one time their teams were known as the "Stanford Injuns". This nickname upset a lot of people, especially because the team mascot was former NFL great Joe Kapp, who by that time was down on his luck and tended to hit the sauce a bit.
The choice of a stereotypical drunken mascot did exemplify Stanford's problems. The teams were undisciplined, the fans were unruly, and the band members were so wobbly that they couldn't even make a hit, let alone a game-saving tackle.
Eventually Stanford realized that it needed a fresh start for its program. Stanford looked toward the University of Notre Dame as a model. It was hoped that by emulating the ND program, Stanford would clean up its act (and get a network TV contract, though the only network willing to show Stanford contests was the Golf Channel, in the mistaken belief that a scrawny kid like Tiger Woods would have played football).
At first Stanford wanted to call its team the Popes, but the Vatican objected. Next they thought of changing their nickname to "The Bishops", but a copyright infringement lawsuit by the BBC blocked that one. So that's how the Stanford team became the red-clad "Cardinals".
It sure is interesting to see all the cheerleaders in their pointy hats, it's almost like those conical bras that the USC Song Girls wear.
Speaking of Notre Dame, there was an unusual play in their game last weekend against Western Virginia. Notre Dame tried a field goal and a Thundering Mountaineer player threw a towel up in the air, partially deflecting the kick.
Now way back when, the rules were more liberal and throwing objects in the air to block kicks was legal and even encouraged. Players were issued bricks and long sticks to try to make kicking more difficult.
That's why you didn't see as many great kickers back then, most of them were getting their eyes poked out with sticks and nobody wanted the job.
The most innovative method of blocking kicks came in the 1920's from legendary coach Dana X. Bible. He actually invented the pyramid formation, where players would line up, four on the bottom row, three on the next row, two above the three, and one guy standing on top. That made for 10 men, the 11th would be the guy assigned to pick up the blocked kick and run with it. The guy on top would usually be 15 feet off the ground, and he was in perfect position to block kicks.
During the 1924 season Bible's A&M team blocked every kick attempted by the opposition. Their "safety" in fact returned three of them for touchdowns. The opponent would set up for a placekick, and Bible would order his team to go into the pyramid formation. Usually the kick wouldn't get any higher than the third row of Bible's pyramid, but even if it went higher, the guy on top usually could block it with his hands, or at least throw his shoe at it and deflect it.
The practice finally came to an end after the now legendary 1924 Dysentery Bowel in Monterrey, Mexico. Bible's boys faced off against John Heisman's Georgia Tech team. Heisman was known as the most brilliant coach around, and he devised a scheme to prevent the blocked kicks.
When Georgia Tech set up for a field goal against A&M, Bible ordered his players into the pyramid formation. Georgia Tech then lined up in Heisman's new formation. They had the center in front of the pyramid, but snapped the ball back but several yards to the left, forming what was the first-ever swinging gate formation. A&M didn't have time to shift formation, as the pyramid usually took at least 10 seconds to build, and Georgia Tech was easily able to make the kick.
The man on top of the A&M pyramid flailed wildly as he tried to block the ball that was sailing five yards to his right, and he fell off the pyramid and landed face-first in the turf. In honor of the player whose nose was disfigured in that crash, the innovative Heisman invented the face mask.
That injured player went on to a great career. No, not in the NFL. The player who was injured never crowned another football, but he sure crooned his way into a lot of hearts, as famous nasally endowed singer Jimmy Durante. And now you know the rest of the inka-dinka story.