2007 Week 10
November 8, 2007
Well, that was one heck of a strange week.
I have been very concerned with Notre Dame's struggles this year. Their BS Bowel chances appear to be fading fast. Coach Charles White just hasn't seemed to get things going. So I thought it was a good idea for him to schedule another Blue/Gold intrasquad game last Saturday.
NBC even chose to televise it and it was one exciting contest. You could tell it was just a scrimmage, because there's no way a team that was tied up in a real game would pass up a game-winning field goal just to practice its fourth down passing attack. Kudos to Coach White and his Irish, at least this week they're coming off both a loss and a win!
I am very disappointed with the coaches in the Midlands. It's very unfortunate to see the continued tendency by Big Eight coaches to run up the score. Think of those poor schools and their fans, with no hope of victory and a really tough time recruiting, and weak sisters facing the humiliation of 40-point defeats. I'm sure if the shoe was on the other foot you wouldn't see Nebraska and Colorado piling up the points, no sir.
Georgia knocked off the men of Troy, which is more bad news for TV psycho Diane Carroll's husband Pete.
Texas once again came from behind against OSU. Yet I looked at the BS rankings and the Buckeyes once again are rated #1. Everyone knows that BC should be number one, especially after that exciting game against Florida State, a classic Big East vs. SEC matchup.
There's a fascinating new trend in coaching: Many programs are doing well with fat coaches. Even former USC great Charles White did well early on at Notre Dame before he had one of his stomachs removed and dropped down to 300 pounds. Other schools like Maryland, Kansas, and Toledo have been winning with big fat men running the show.
The tradition of turning around a program with a corpulent coach had its start over 50 years ago. Little Alabama Southern State had lost 32 games in a row and looked to hire a bright young man straight out of the Navy named Aaron.
Aaron knew football frontwards and backwards and was quite the athlete himself, having been a running back and a safety in those limited substitution days (even the Navy had platoons!).
As he took over the program Aaron started to become obsessed with improving the program. He'd just sit in his office until well after midnight, watching film of opponents. The hard work paid off though, as Alabama Southern split their first two games and then won two straight.
Pretty soon Aaron got even more obsessive about watching film, chowing down snack food, and sleeping in the coach's office. He'd get up the next day all grouchy and throwing things around. Eventually the other coaches tried to lighten the mood, mixing in some stag films with the game films (they especially liked those starring the grandmama of future Kentucky groupie Ashley Jugg).
Aaron never said a word about the "special" movies, just kept on watching film, eating his Doritos, and coaching up a storm. His fellow coaches were a bit disturbed after practice one day when they saw the now 250-pound Aaron in the shower, with an orange "flag staff". The assistants realized he'd been watching too many of Grandmama Jugg's films.
They were right to be concerned as their team was upset in the finale. They finished 8-2 and in 3rd place in the Pan-American Intercollegiate Scholastic Sports league, so Alabama Southern State ended up just behind Florida Undergraduate College and the Sam Houston Institute of Technology.
Aaron's record helped in move onward and upward in the coaching ranks, and his great success at higher levels led to the first-ever push to hire fat coaches. He paved the way for fat coaches ranging from Weeb Ewbank to Phil Fulmer.
But when he achieved his greatest fame, Aaron wasn't known by his birth name. You see, his assistants not only joked about the flag staff in the shower, they also gave him a nickname. So Aaron became known to the world as "Woody". Woody Hayes.
And now you know the rest of the story.