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AFM Magazine

AFM Magazine


The Winning Business

by: John Seaburn
Akron Beacon Journal
© More from this issue

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The work ethic that has steered Larry Kehres to some amazing heights in college football coaching began to take shape a long time ago.

The man who has earned four AFMA Coach of the Year awards at Mount Union College in Ohio, Kehres as a youth performed tasks before and after school and had his first job when he was just 10 years old.

"We didn't feed chickens every day or anything like that,'' says Kehres, who grew up in rural Palmyra township near Alliance.

"But when I was told to do something, I did it. And so did my friends. We were accustomed to that. It wasn't an unusual upbringing for those times.''

Paternal guidance helped shape Kehres' work ethic.

"My Dad wasn't a taskmaster, but when I had something to do, he made sure that I did it. My Dad saw to that.

"He placed an importance on completing tasks. I did them because to my Dad, they had purpose.

"A person's attitude toward completing jobs and doing them well is learned at an early age, and at home."

Kehres' first job was as a custodian's helper. He was in the fourth grade.

"I swept and mopped floors, emptied wastebaskets,'' he says. "I did whatever was needed around the school.''

The memory of that first job is vivid for three reasons, Kehres says.

"We worked a 20-day month and I was paid 75 cents a day, $15 a month. To a fourth-grader in 1960, that was major money."

The second reason: "I was working in a classroom one particular day and a radio was playing. I remember the year was 1960 because that day, Bill Mazaroski hit a home run and the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the New York Yankees to win the World Series.''

And the third reason: "On weekends, I'd sneak into the school and open the gymnasium so my buddies and I could play basketball. The custodian eventually got to where he didn't seem to mind because I'd put coals on the fire as soon as I got in and the place was warm for the day."

Kehres, 50, has applied the work ethic he learned at an early age to coaching football at Mount Union.

"He's a hard worker, very organized and doesn't waste time,'' says Ken Wable, retired Mount Union coach who recruited Kehres to play quarterback and groomed him to be his replacement. "A lot of Larry's work ethic has come from his upbringing."

Kehres guided the Purple Raiders to an NCAA all-division record winning streak of 54 games before losing to Rowan in the semifinal round of the 1999 Division III playoffs on Dec. 11. The 54-game winning streak snapped Oklahoma's 47-game streak set between 1953-57.

Kehres has a 14-year coaching record of 150-17-3 (88.2), and his Purple Raiders have been college football's winningest team of the '90s, going 120-7-1 (93.7).

AFMA Executive Director Grant Teaff said, "I've gotten to know Kehres through his acceptance of our Coach of the Year award and his role with the coaching staffs at our all-star game in Hawaii the last three years, and I never fail to be amazed at all that he's accomplished."

Closer to home, Don Montgomery probably knows Kehres as well as anyone. A Mount Union player when Kehres was an assistant coach, Montgomery has been a Raiders aide for 23 seasons, 15 as architect of the defense.

"Larry's a no-nonsense guy with a stern outward appearance,'' Montgomery says. "But underneath, he's a very caring individual. He has the best interests of people around him uppermost in his mind."

Montgomery recalled with emotion his father's passing and his wife's serious illness, and the response of his boss and close friend.

"I'll never forget Larry's reaction,'' Montgomery says. "He was as deeply affected by each situation as I was. In that regard, he came through for me as a true friend would."

West Virginia head coach Don Nehlen had Kehres as a graduate assistant when Nehlen was a head coach at Bowling Green State.

"It wasn't long before I became aware of Kehres' even-tempered outlook,'' Nehlen says. "He quickly adopted the attitude of an experience coach, mainly through dedication and devotion to hard work."

Montgomery adds: "He's no different than a leader in any organization. He's a very strong professional and he makes many of the tasks facing coaches enjoyable. Because we've been together so long, it's hard to separate job from leisure."

Good lines of communication have gotten Kehres beyond some of the potential pitfalls associated with coaching.

"Whether it's with recruits and their families, staff, school and community leaders or the media, if a coach is straight forward with his comments, there's no need for communication to be excessive,'' Kehres says.

He believes being organized goes hand in hand with communication.

"That's true for everybody at every level of coaching," says Kehres, who frowns at the prospect of being labeled meticulous and obsessive. "Good organization means that when you're confronted with an obstacle, you can pick which way to turn.

"In coaching, organization can be how your team looks on the field. Does the team look organized? Does it appear to be disciplined? If it does, the coach more than likely has dealt with the obstacle in a meeting or on the practice field, rather than waiting to face it in game conditions."

It hasn't always been national championships and unbeaten streaks for Kehres, however.

A Mount Union assistant for 11 seasons, Kehres became head coach in 1986 after Wable had retired at the conclusion of the 1985 campaign.

It was a heady time for the new regime. Mount Union went 11-1, its lone loss coming in the national quarterfinals.

Then, as Kehres and his staff adjusted and graduation continued to claim key players, the Purple Raiders went 6-4, 6-3-1 and 7-2-1 before returning to the playoffs in 1990.

"When Larry, Don and Jeff Wojtowicz continued coaching after I retired, they used what I'd been doing as well as some innovations of their own," Wable says.

"They went undefeated their first year with what would have been my last team had I stayed another year. Then they struggled for a couple of years until their own ideas started to kick in.

"Once the staff was established to Larry's liking, they hardly ever lost a game."

Wable says Kehres has welcomed input from former Mount Union players-turned-coaches, Jacksonville Jaguars defensive coordinator Dom Capers and New England Patriots secondary coach Ron Lynn.

"I think Larry would agree that Mount Union has been fortunate that people like Capers and Lynn have continued their association with the school's football program," Wable says.

"Most new things in football begin with the pros and filter down, and those men have been able to help Kehres incorporate some things into Mount Union football."

When it comes to building a program and maintaining a level of play year after year, there may be none better at the Division III level than Kehres.

"One advantage for me has been the number of years I've been in this position," Kehres says. "Doing the same thing year after year, some things come naturally after awhile.

"The other aspect of that is that coaching football is a dynamic. Even if your team is successful, that team is constantly going through change. It's critical that the coaching staff anticipates when change needs to be made.''

For example, Kehres says, Mount Union was known primarily for its passing attack in the 1996 and 1997 national championship seasons.

When Kehres and his assistants decided to seek a more balanced attack and added a running game in 1998, the change caught opponents off-guard. The result? The Raiders' third consecutive national championship.

The affect of change wrought by Kehres continued into 1999 and resulted in the NCAA's new all-division winning streak, a Division III-record five consecutive seasons of 500 points or more and a semifinal playoff finish.

"Early in my career, it became crystal clear that a team needs to consistently convert third downs into first downs,'' Kehres explains.

"I wanted to develop an offense that could convert third-and-short and third-and-medium yardage plays against outstanding defenses.

"The question of how to get a first down when a defense is geared to stop us is at the core of our pass offense, and now our pass-run offense."

Kehres' style has been likened to what's often referred to as the Bill Walsh or West Coast offense.

"Some people call it that, but I don't even know what the West Coast offense is," Kehres says.

Nevertheless, Mount Union has become known for its success in the red zone. The '99 Raiders lead the nation in scoring with an average of 53.4 points and have completed a touchdown pass in 114 consecutive games.

"When we were defeated in the playoffs in the early 1990s, one of the main reasons was that we didn't score when we had opportunities,'' Kehres says.

"That caused us to look for more ways to score and in 1993-94, we began to work on a red zone pass offense. The result was that we completed a lot of touchdown passes."

Now, at the end of the decade, defenses are adjusting and the Raiders have returned to the run. "Balance has returned to our offense," Kehres says.

Mount Union football, Kehres says, is a combination of finding players who fit certain roles as well as adjusting the program to fit the talent.

"We have a style of offense and defense in which players, at times, look to be a nearly perfect fit. Other times, players reveal to us that they can do things that perhaps we hadn't counted on, and so we certainly try to incorporate that into our style of play."

Kehres says that through the years, he's grown with his players and their mannerisms outside of football.

"No, its not 'my way or the highway'," says Kehres, who welcomed 230 candidates for the start of fall drills and finished the season with 216.

"Maturity helps coaches be tolerant of individuals' freedoms or experiences that young guys have.

"You have to come to realize that young people haven't changed significantly through the years. What's changed is the environment in which they've grown up. Coaches have to recognize and respect that."

Having solid offensive and defensive units is one thing, but molding them into winning teams is another. Kehres says he approaches that goal with team unity in mind.

"Some coaches may not agree with this, but I seldom have the starters practice or scrimmage against each other. Now, I know how valuable working the No. 1 units against each other can be, but the negatives can be very counter-productive. We just don't do it."

And that mass of humanity he deals with when fall practices begin? How is it possible to maintain the attention span of so many and still work with key players?

"Oh, I suppose we miss some things, but one of the pluses is that more players are active and learning. Also, there are a lot of surprises in Division III football and more often than not they turn up on the practice field."

"Coaches have to be patient and observant and objective. The reward for that are those times when young men make tremendous strides.''

Kehres looks for those strides to be made on campus as well as in the community.

"I believe in the concept of the Division III student-athlete," he says.

"We coaches want athletes in all sports to be part of the student body, not different from it. We encourage them to do the things available to students that they find interesting.

"I don't want a player to wait for me to send him to something. I encourage them to join in social opportunities and be a part of the student community."

Kehres also places a high priority on his players attending classes.

"We had two defensive starters leave practice early every Tuesday so they could attend evening classes. That's done because that was the only time they were able to get into those classes."

What Kehres is saying is that football, although important at Mount Union, does not take precedence over the classroom.

"Our players sign up for classes in the same alphabetical order as do other students. We abide by the concept that the student-athlete is that and nothing more."

Kehres' staff includes Montgomery and Wojtowicz (13 seasons) as full-time paid assistants. Retired area high school football coaches Rudy Sharkey, Joe Leigh, Clyde Ross and Marty Cvelbar are volunteer coaches, as are Erik Raeburn, Ken Lewis, Paul Gulling, Brian Flinn and Michael Elder.

"I don't know what I'd do without Don and Jeff, and guys like Rudy, Joe, Clyde and Marty are ideal for Division III football because they've coached for years and want to continue that association with young people.

"When it comes to hiring a young guy, I look at the nature of the position and the guy applying for it. A very small salary and a lot of hard work is involved."

Montgomery says, "Every coach on our staff has specific strengths, but Larry has them all.

"We're all equipped to be head coaches, and that's come from the leadership qualities of Larry and Coach Wable."






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