Do we know as much football as coaches?

Now, baseball managers?

Piece of cake. I can spit, scratch and fill out a lineup card.

I'm good to go.

 

I thought about this while looking at the Oklahoma-Colorado writeups. Is it a legitimate excuse for a coach to say coverage can keep you from getting even one throw to your top receiver (Malcolm Kelly)? Or is it an example of the coach being outcoached?

 

OK, Ace, riddle me this: Tell me what seedage is.

 

I think the question is outrageous. Of course we don't know as much as the coaches. I can identify who's good and who's bad, but I prescribe fixes for bad players. I can tell which plays work and which don't, but I can't say for sure why unless it's strikingly obvious. I can generally guess what a team's gameplan will be, but I can't tell whether their blocking schemes or blitz packages were the right ones or not.

Of course, I do share one bit of knowledge with college coaches: Have the best players and you'll win almost every time.

 

If we did, we wouldn't have to ask them questions.

I cover baseball, which is a lot less complex than football, and I think I understand it very well, but I learn new stuff all the time from talking to people.

I am not at all ashamed that I know less than the people in the game. Whenever anyone gets snappy with me and gives me one of those "you think you know everything" responses, I say: "No, I don't know. That's why I'm asking you."

 

The shell residue you spit out after you chew your sunflower seed.

 

(bit of a thread jack, but a funny story)

Years ago the college team I was covering - NAIA - invited the two of us from the paper and the two radio guys to be "Guest Coaches" for their spring game. They literally turned the teams over to us, and the coaches sat in the stands.

It was more or less like sand lot football with us drawing up plays on the fly. "OK, you run out here. You go there. You do this and pitch the ball to him."

The players had a blast to close out the year, and the coaches were rolling.

 

That would be fun.

 

During an argument with a coach I used to cover, he asked me how much basketball I had played.

I told him I played two years of high school ball. He laughed and rolled his eyes...

I then asked him how many years of journalism experience he had. He said none. I then laughed and rolled my eyes...

I then told him that I was more qualified to criticize him as a coach than he was to criticize me as a journalist... We both got a laugh out of that...

 

That's always a good retort. I've used a version of it on angry parents who call in with the "you don't know anything about volleyball/swimming/cross country."

 

Herm Edwards did something like that when he was with the Jets. It was actually more than chalk talk, it was like a mini training camp for reporters. If I remember right, it was a day or two where they all went through drills, film sessions, etc. By most accounts, it was a very enlightening experience.

As for the topic, I've been doing this almost 10 years and I'm always amazed when I sit and watch high school coaches break down film. I'll sit and watch a play, and have a hard time seeing linemen do their thing even when I'm looking for it. They can watch it once and go, "Wow! Look at that guard pull on the option! That's gonna give us trouble. We'll have to get Billy Linebacker out there to take care of that, then slide Jimmy over from defensive tackle and..."
I like to think of myself as a knowledgeable fan. They're experts. They're supposed to know more than us. Doesn't mean we can't learn enough to spot when and why things work or don't work.

 

What's interesting is the depth and intricacy of knowledge on things like defenses and blitz packages... and yet they have to use a chart to tell them to go for 2.