Pardon the Interruption but We\'re on the Inside

by: Mike Kuchar
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Gotta start with a quick story – as coaches we love that sort of thing. I had the fortune two summers ago to come in direct contact with one of the game’s greats, Bobby Bowden at FSU. I was working on a football preview for ESPN Magazine, and before I knew it I was smack dab in the Mecca of college football – Bowden’s office overlooked the south end zone of Doak Campbell Stadium. Glossies of Y.A. Title, Dick Butkus, and various other gridiron greats – all autographed by the way – donned the flank of his 3,000 square foot office space, complete with a live-in bathroom. The idea of a young media type with a line-up of questions probably agitated him. In fact, he didn’t even pick his head up from the scratch pad he was dabbling on when I walked in. Could’ve introduced myself as Butch Davis, and I’m still not sure that would’ve granted a look in my direction. Then I popped the question that the football coach in me had been waiting to ask: “Coach, what does it feel like when after you lose a big game (and we all know Bobby didn’t lose many, so my flattery went out the window) and you have to explain to all these pencil pushers, who have no clue whether a football is blown up or stuffed, why you were defeated?” First there was a chuckle and finally the legend started to open up. Bowden realized I was one of him. Making a long story short, twenty minutes later and I was trading wits, well, more like absorbing his – on what it takes to be a successful football coach. And what I distinctly remember him saying was ask plenty of questions, learn to be loyal, and focus on the fundamentals.

Bottom line is I’m a football coach who loves to write – and only about football. I’ve played and coached at the Division I level. Like all of you, the game consumes me, drives me and takes control of me. “My name is Mike and I’m an addict.” I don’t follow basketball, am bored to tears watching baseball and I fall into the typical six month depression from February to June where there is nothing to watch but the AFL. Thank goodness for that. Somewhere in my travels, publisher Travis Davis and I crossed paths, and here I am representing American Football Monthly, a publication that I’ve been reading for over ten years. Now as a senior writer, it is my intent to bring the intensity and passion that we all feel about this game to thousands of coaches across the country. But we’re not going to do it by boring you with the philosophy of the game. Most of that sort of thing you learn by trial and error anyway. It’s the core of the game that we’re focused on.

Making a direct correlation to Coach Bowden’s ageless advice, now AFM will be geared to just that – the essentials of football. Not just the schemes of the game, but the HOW in coaching that is often neglected. It’s not what you know, but what your kids know. That makes the difference and it’s how you teach the fundamentals that get them better. In this issue, we have a tremendous technical piece by Rich Alercio, a guru in offensive line play in the Northeastern part of the country, who is now the new head coach at Castleton University in Vermont. It’s all part of a new direction in AFM, and an exciting time to be a football coach.

I started with a story and I’ll end with a tireless cliché, typical of the writer in me. Football coaches are the best people in the world, and I’m convinced of it. The most rewarding time of my day is talking to these coaches and listening to how they teach their kids the game of football. I constantly wonder if doctors, lawyers or plumbers share the same passion for their job as we do for ours. We’re in the business of sharing information, and what better way to do so than in a forum such as this publication. AFM is without question the number one resource for football coaches. I urge you to reach out to me and let me know what you’re doing to make this game better; I want to get a pulse on what you know and what you want as coaches. Just be ready when you contact me, I’ll have plenty of questions. Let’s make it a great run.

Yours in football,

Mike Kuchar
Senior Writer
American Football Monthly
MikeKuchar@AmericanFootballMonthly.com

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