Texas Stadium ------ Our coaching staff knew we had an unusually strong team coming , but when the 1976 season started with Texas Footballs Dave Campbell picking us to win the 4A State Championship, the expectations went up quickly -- I knew we had to do some different & in some cases, unusual things in the secondary to contain Plano, Lake Highlands, Greenville & other potent offenses we would face that yr. -- We had used the Bump & Run man to man w/ free safety coverage some in 75, but would come to depend on it as a go to coverage in 76 - that one, along with bump & run, 2 deep, pure m-m for secondary stunts, and 5 under - 2 deep zone and we added 2 Pop m-m to shuffle to 5 - 7 yds. & POP the receiver out of his route -- some of these coverages looked real funny, and opponents had a very hard time reading them in the day when most teams were running mostly the old cover 4 rotating zone coverage, and, we used extensive pre-snap movement on every play -- we often lined up w/ 10 men within 2 yds. of the LOS & a free safety 8-9 yds deep, running the alleys --- that may sound risky, playing great passing teams like Lake Highlands, Greenville, Plano, Richardson & Pearce, but, long story short, our secondary held our opponents to a 29% completion rate, averaged giving up 63 yds. a game passing, intercepted 19 passes and knocked down scores more. Our secondary guys (Who were extremely talented, and were willing to work hard, and were dedicated to success) were terrific players, with exceptional speed, quickness, shuffle & break ability and tough tacklers, and thats why we could run all those coverages successfully. Of this group of men, in a 2 yr. period, 8 guys went on to play Division 1 college football (9 counting Allen Hooker from an earlier Bearcat team) and, counting Allen, 5 went on to play professional football. These include Jimmy Turner, UCLA & Cincinnati Bengals -- Chris Rockins, Oklahoma State & Cleveland Browns -- Gary Lowell, OU & L. A. Express (USFL) -- Raymond Polk, Oklahoma State & Oakland Raiders -- Randy Wessinger, U. of Arkansas -- Keith Young, UCLA -- Eddie Wright, U. of Houston -- Grey Stogner, Baylor -- and Allen Hooker, TCU & Pittsburgh Steelers. Others who played in that secondary, and worked just as hard as the guys just mentioned were, Brian Buick, the Whitfield Brothers, Michael Everett, Van Guess, Kenneth Howell, Marvin Ruffin, Gary Cox and a special thanks to Hoby Urich, who came over from the receivers to run routs against us in practice. Our entire team was just a special group of guys that gave so much of themselves and worked so hard to win that district championship against great odds, no matter what Texas Footballs Dave Campbell said. The regular season included some real battles, with some disappointments, and ended with a District 13 4A Championship winning game in the Frozen Bowl at Richardson. The next week, we played the now #1 ranked Longview Lobos in Texas Stadium. Billy Don Jackson blocked a punt early in the first quarter, setting up the only touchdown of the game. We upset the Lobos 10 to 3 in a defensive battle - Bi - District Champs. Next was Temple -- at Texas Stadium again. Just the opposite type game from the week before -- wild and exciting, it wound up 26 to 26 and Temple won on the stupid penetration rule which was used to determine tie winners before playing the tie game off, as is done today. I know I cant remember all the names of our guys on the 76 team, because I cant remember much of what I did yesterday at my age, but here goes -- besides the secondary guys already mentioned, Bryan Clayton (U. of Texas) - Billy Don Jackson (UCLA & Boston Breakers, USFL) - Spanky Carter (U. of Texas) - Blume Loe (U.of Arkansas) - Gary Jack (U. of Alabama , Baseball) - Rick Bullock - Tommy Neal - Mike Konkel - Brett Tudor - Gary Andrews - Richard Bennett - and, I know there were several more -- if I left you or a teammate out, help me by adding the names in comments. Needless to say, the 13 years we spent at SHS were probably the most memorable because of the great times coaching, the length of time, our kids graduated from SHS and the great kids we had to teach and coach at SHS! One more thing -- not saying that I had a thing to do with this, but the 13 years I coached @ SHS, we never lost to Denison - I dont care about other streaks, that one is the longest one THAT I COULD FIND of any coach in SHS history that was coaching in Sherman during a 13 game unbeaten streak vs. Denison. Remember, I said I didnt have anything to do with it -- the good just Lord takes care of His children in all different kinds of ways, and He blessed me with the most unbelievable group of secondary players a coach could ever wish for...................
Posted on: Mon, 01 Sep 2014 17:58:05 +0000
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