Untitled - Fast and Furious Football

I9O FOOTBALL COACHING STRATEGIES
Fifty-Plus Yeans of Goaching Football
EDDIE ROBINSON
One ofthe best things that's happened to me in
my liletime is that I've heard the best coaches
who have eve|walked. From 1941, when I firut
wcnt to coaching school, I\e head them all. You
name them, and I havc a piece of cvcry one. And
whan I lcave here today,I'11 have a pioce ofthose
who will taik today
At Gramblins, we don't do a wholc lotofthings
thatotherp€opl€ haven't done. We comehere and
we get the plays. I've had your plays; you know
that. I got tbe Wing-T from (Forest) Evash€vski,
from (Dave) Nelson.I picked theirbrains. This is
what it's all about. You can't come here and walk
in the halls and hang a.ound Uke I see some of
the guys. When someone gets up here to speak,
you need to be in here to hear hjm.
For example, back in the '50s, we were tryins
to change plays at the line. I'd gone all over the
country trying to talk with people who changed
something at the line. At one clinic, an unknown
speaker came up after Frank Leahy had spoken,
and while the other coaches were walkins out,
thi. gr.rl "aid ereryrhinB I wantcd ro knos.
Why Goaching
To paraphrase the lateAlonzo Stagg:"The coaching
profession is the most rewarding professron
in the world, and no man is too good to coach in
Amedca."It's a ereat pmfession, and this is what
you need to tell th€ young coaches. Work hard,
and promotions will come. You can't work at one
j ob, looking to go to anotherj ob. You'v€ got to have
I a$ee with coach Stagg wholeheartedly, and
I have for some 49 to 50 years, to the extent that
at this point, ifl had a decision to mak€ about a
vocation, I wouldn't have to take a second guess
it would slill be the coaching professi on, because
I know that football builds character in young
When I look at you,I see peop)e who can make
winners out oflosers. I see people who can be a
plus to our society. I see people who are looking
at the young man inst€ad of the record. You've
sot to look at both you don't have a record, you
set flled-but you'rc d€alins with America's most
prccious possession. These great men who I heard
kind of shaped my philosophy about thinss like
ihis, that football builds chamcter inyouns men.
Football Lessons
Coaches inthe past have saidthis aboutfbotball,
and I beli€ve it, too. Football makes young men
strone onough to know when th€y're weak and
brave enough to face themseive! when they'rc
afraid. Football will teach them to be proud and
unb€ndins in honest failure, but humble and
g€rtle in success. Football teaches m€n not to
substitule words for action, nor to seek the path
ofcomfort, butto face the streBs and spur of difficulty
and challenge.
Football will teach them to stand up in the
stor'rn but to have compas8ion on those who fall;
to have a heaft that is clean, a goal that h high.
It will teach them to laugh, yet never forget to
weep; to reach into the future, yet never neglect
the past; to be serious, yet never take youmeif
too seriously; to be modest so that you will re
member the simplicity of true greatness the
open-mindedness of tlue wisdom.
We\e got som€ $eat minds here. The players
have sreat minds, too. At Gramblins, we hav€ a
man who's our leader, our prcsident;I've had th€
distinct pleasure ofcoachingtwo players who are
now colles€ presidents. Grcat minds. That's why
I want you to leave here with a commitment about
this game and the young men you coach.
A boy can't come to my office and t€ll me,
"Coach, I don't want to waste your time-" He
doesn't waste my time.It's ourtime.I don'tflunk
anybody, and I'm not running the football, and
I'm not catchine it. So, these athlet€s are the most
impoftant people in the world to me.
It's all right fora manto be a man,butyouput
him down there in a one-on-one situation, and
this suy will find out howsoodhe is,just lik€ the