Scrimmage Today!

#51 Dick Butkus- All-Pro Middle Linebacker

I hate this photograph!  LOL.  I was a Green Bay Packer fan growing up; naturally, I hated the Chicago Bears.  In this photograph, Dick Butkus is literally trying to rip off the head off Travis Williams of the Packers.  Butkus was an old school linebacker with a nasty attitude.  Coach Miller will love this photograph. 

Today was decent...not great for either side of the ball...but decent.  The problem is that both sides of the ball know each other so well, it is almost impossible to have a normal game scrimmage.  For instance:  On Offense, we have a series of audibles (different plays our QB can call from the line of scrimmage) that we can use.  Here is the problem....the defense knows the audibles as well as we do.  Hakeem tried to change a play, and the ENTIRE defense started screaming:  "Watch the Dive- Watch the Dive!"  LOL.  We really need to play someone else right now.  We got both Bookie and Javonte over with us for a while today.  When I started going over our alignments with them, they already knew what plays we ran from these formations.  Amazing.  How the hell can we run our offense against our defense when they already know what we are going to do?  LOL.  That's OK.  These guys play for US.  This defense is going to give our opponents fits. 

We had a few kids missing today for various reasons.  Our best running back- OJ Jefferson- missed the scrimmage for a reason I will not reveal on this blog.  Lets just say Bethel was not happy.  I really want to talk more about this offense, but I am going to refrain from doing so.  We got a good chance to see some of our 9th grade (JV Kids) for the first time today.  We also sprinkled some younger kids into the mix as well.  Mostly, these were kids who are probably "tweeners" (a player not quite ready for the SPEED of the Varsity game)  It was the highlight of the day for me.  When we inserted these kids into the scrimmage, we could almost see the lights going on in their heads.  The game slowed down, and these "tweeners" really shined.  It was so good to see.  My boy- Fellsmere Cody had a great day, and Big Clay played well too.  I am sure Miller and Perry had a few players do well for them.  All in all, it was decent.  Truthfully, we are all looking forward to next week. 

Want to know what are the biggest enemies of a football coach?  Here are probably the top three arch enemies we have in no particular order.  No disrespet intended to the females reading this blog.  Truthfully, all three enemies go hand in hand. 

1. GIRLFRIENDS 

2. TRUCK / CAR - (INSURANCE)  PAYMENTS

3.  A JOB 

Lets talk about all three enemies: 

Girlfriends:

OH man.  The worst of the worst.  Girlfriends have probably destroyed more careers than any knee injury, or ankle injury COMBINED!  Some players just go crazy when they are in love.  They start finding reasons to miss practice, or they are pre-occupied with anything concerning football.  The love-struck player generally starts messing up at home, and they always need money to date the love of his life.   Which brings us to the next enemy.

TRUCK / CAR PAYMENTS

HEY, the players can't have their cute little girlfriends ride in Mom's Mini Van, so they naturally want their own set of wheels..... a nice set of wheels...which costs money.  Next thing you know, the player has a truck/car payment along with the insurance payments which comes along with driving.  Also, gas costs a lot of money too...which brings us to the next enemy:

A JOB 

Naturally, the little girlfriend want to go out every now and then, and truck-car-insurance payments are not cheap.   So, the player has to get a job to pay for all this stuff.  Now he has to arrange his work schedule around his football schedule. Sometimes it works....sometimes it does not work.  I wish I had a dollar for every worksite I have visited to speak with the manager.   

I am kidding of course....sort of!  Nevertheless, the issues are very real, and they have been happening for many years.  This is just part of coaching High School Football, and it is just another reason for us to teach the "Lessons In Life" to our kids.  Maybe they can learn something from our mistakes. 

I'm out!! 

GZ