Untitled - Fast and Furious Football

188 FOOTBALL COACHING STRATEGIES
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Things I've Learned From Goaching
JOE PATERNO
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I'll never forget the frlst time I spoke at the Atlantic
City coa€hes clinic way back in the old days,
when Dr. Harry Scott was running it. He set me
up one night. We had a little dinner, and Harry
said, 'Joe, I've been reading everything you have
had to say about football. I've been wat{hing you,
the way you have coached, and I've asked a friend
of mine who is an author to put together a book,
and I want you to have thtu. The title of the book
h Whdt I Knoo About Foorball by Joe Patemo." I
col d hadly wait to get at the book. I opened it
up, and there were 200 €mprl pages. I still have
that book.
The first clinic I went to was back in 1950,
when I waE in my first year of coaching at Penn
State. Four of us got in the car and drove all night
fr.m Srate College to Dallas. and ne werp going
to stay at the Baker Hotel. The university gave
us $50 each for expenses. We rented a room and
shared the expenses of the cax We walked into
the Baker Hotel about twelve or one at night, and
there was a whole crowd of people in the lobby
There was this kind of heary guy holdins court,
running the clinic. That was Woody Hayes.
Woody had just had ar undefeated season at
Miami of Ohio and was in the proc$s of being
int€rviewed for the Ohio State job. He was in there
talking about how he blocked the off-tackle play.
We were there until four in the moming, and I
was fascinated. That was my introduction to the
American Football Coaches Association clruc.
About Teaching
I know most ofyou may have heard this before,
but first and foremost, what I have learned is that
a coach must be a teacher. I was able to learn
thft from a pe$on who I truly believ€ to be one of
the best coaches and t€achem ever: Rip Engle.
Rip would never let us put in more than the kids
could handle. He was constantly evaluating the
assiBtant6 to determine how much new material
they were putting in and how quickly the kids
were comprehending it.
I can't tell you how important that is. The
minute you have to play a kid that can't learn
quickly, can't handle some things you want to do,
all of a sudden your whole scheme has come down.
We couldnt do some things we do in our secondary
if we didn't have four bright kids back there
who could handle sorn€ of the adjustments, the
checks, the change-ups on coverages. We can only
go as fast as the slowest lea.ner
About Players
In evaluatirg pemonnel, I've always believ€d that
the frrst thing was consistency, the second thing
was the RBI-the guy that can mak€ the big play
and $.in the same for you-and the third thing
was the guy that makes the major er'ror. You can't
play him. I try to remember what players can do
well. Ifyou hav€ a player that can do something
particularly well, don't forget it. In the €lutch,
that's what vou want to use.