The Communicator

Armed with a computer and an offense for the 21st century, Brian Billick has taken Baltimore by storm.
by: Mike Preston
The Baltimore Sun
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He is everywhere in Baltimore. The slender face with the receding hairline and jutting jaw is on several Baltimore-area billboards or in team advertisements in national sports magazines. He has been active in the community, not selling just the Ravens, but himself. One day could include several motivational speeches that might have stops at the Baltimore Teachers Association or a high school football clinic with 200 coaches.

Brian Billick has enamored fans in Baltimore. He quotes Colin Powell and Chinese philosophers. Five-syllable words roll off his tongue. The Ravens' permanent seat license sales have improved by nearly 3,000 since last season - 57,000 are now sold - and Billick is the reason why. Hired in January to replace Ted Marchibroda, Billick, 45, signed a six-year, $9 million contract as a rookie head coach in the NFL, and the Ravens think they got a bargain.

"He is the entire package," Ravens owner Art Modell said recently. "Like I say, he's got to do it on the field. But I like the way he handles players and his staff. He's a winner. I think we have to give him the talent to win with on the field. If we don't win, I believe it'll be because we didn't give him enough talent to work with, not because he can't coach. I think Billick is an owner's dream. He's got a chemistry with the fans. He's got a chemistry with my family. He is a master of communication. He's an extraordinarily gifted man."

What Billick is, in actuality, is part of the new-wave generation that has hit the league. Organized. Computerized. And oh, can he build an offense.

As Minnesota's coordinator last season, Billick became the league's hottest coaching prospect by orchestrating a record breaking offense. But can he win games as a head coach? For those who know Billick, there is only one answer. A definitive yes.

His confidence borders on arrogance, which is a good thing. It's also infectious. But the honeymoon can't last forever. Baltimore is starved for pro football success. During the past three years, the Ravens have won just 16 games, barely an appetizer. Taxpayers also had to ante up for the new $220 million stadium. Billick has made only two promises for the 1999 season; the Ravens will have a championship-caliber organization; and jumping in on the ground floor this season is going to be fun.

"Up to this point, yeah, life's pretty good," Billick said recently at a function for local businessmen before the 1999 season began. "I haven't lost a game yet. You drive out of downtown, and there's billboards that just have my face and the word "Billick,' that's it. I'm entirely too unattractive to have my face blown up that big, I promise you. But this all becomes very real soon.

"Given the fact that the Orioles are struggling, that there is no pro basketball here and that this is a strong football town, if we produce, we can seize back the people in this area and truly become a Baltimore Ravens town along the lines of what it was when it was the Baltimore Colts' town," said Billick.

The plan.

Billick foresees a day when teams will use virtual-reality training for players, just as simulators are used to train pilots. He has always been ahead of his time, a numbers cruncher who prepares months in advance.

When Minnesota hired him as an assistant in 1992, he was the only coach to have a computer. Now they all have one. Same for the current Ravens staff. By May, Billick had already calculated the number of snaps his offense would take in training camp. He had already projected the number of third and long and third and short situations, too.

"There can be no denying that every aspect of our lives is being affected by computers," said Billick, who was known as "Stat Boy" by the Vikings players. "Equally undeniable is the fact that there is no aspect of professional interaction that can be done quicker, more efficiently, with more organization and more professional looking than with the use of the computer.

"The very term "computer" is a misnomer," he said." "Communicator" would be a more applicable name to describe what the computer can potentially do for you in our profession. It is my opinion that this is the area where you can gain the best edge all coaches are constantly looking for to enhance their chances of winning."

Billick, along with former San Francisco 49ers coach/general manager Bill Walsh, wrote a book, Finding the Winning Edge. They termed the computer age an "info-lanche" where the new information buries conventional football strategy.

The days of chalkboard diagramming and black-and-white overlays are gone from the Ravens, replaced by Power Point computer slide presentations. Billick also likes digitized video which allows him to evaluate certain situations instantaneously. For instance, if he wants to look at the Chicago Bears offense with two tight ends on second down and less than a yard, he pushes a button and those plays pop up immediately on the video cassette recorder.

"It is absolutely imperative that you have a detailed outline of what your plans are for every aspect of your football team's development," said Billick. "First, it demonstrates to your prospective employer that you have the comprehensive view that it takes to be a head coach. Secondly, the demand on your time and energy make it impossible to function if you're winging it on a daily basis. Not only does it lessen your productivity, but it also makes it impossible for those around you to perform their jobs.

"Today's players also want action and color," said Billick. "You have to change with the times."

Billick says that football is a game of numbers and angles. He believes in being multiple with the West Coast offense. He also doesn't like to over prepare. An average game consists of 65 to 70 plays, according to Billick. Most teams come in prepared with at least twice as many, but Billick comes in with 90 to 95.

Here's the Billick philosophy on building an offense. "The NFL is a quarterback-driven league," said Billick. "Therefore, you have to begin with that position. The difficulty is that without the right supporting cast the most gifted quarterback may develop habits that he can never correct.

"The ability to control the line of scrimmage is obviously a key. Therefore, developing solid offensive and defensive lines is vital," he said. "Given the nature of free agency, it is very difficult to maintain a dominant group on either side of the ball, so both lines must be filled with solid role players with one or two top line cornerstones."

"Generating explosive plays is still a main determinate to winning a game, so you must have a player(s) either at the wide receiver or running back position who can generate that type of play. Conversely, a solid cover corner is your best chance to limit the top rate receiver that exists in today's game.

"I have always believed in being as multiple as your personnel allow," said Billick. "One of the things that helped us produce the offensive record we did in Minnesota was by dictating to the defense what their package could consist of by presenting so many different personnel groups and formations that they had to limit the amount of defense they could practice and install. This doesn't mean you have to run an inordinate or unruly number of plays. If you take a few basic concepts and package it with two or three personnel grouping and a couple of formations, you can present what looks very multiple and complex to the defense, but is, in fact, very simple and basic for your players.

"By being multiple with your personnel, you can also keep a maximum number of players involved with the game plan. In that way everyone feels like they are contributing to your success and it keeps them sharper in practice and in the games."

Billick Before Baltimore.

Billick's father, Don, was an Air Force pilot, which is where he learned his strong work ethic. Both of his parents were born during the Depression and they never spent more than they had. Don Billick would sometimes spend weeks away from the family home in Redlands, Calif., a community of about 40,000. When he returned, he often worked outside. He built every house in which the Billicks lived. One of five children, Brian worked side by side with his father in the evening on the houses.

"My mother [Mildred] was a real estate agent, and she also had a strong work ethic. My father wanted to build everything himself. When he came home, it was "lights on, let's get to work.' It was his hedge on inflation. He had a great attention for detail, extremely competent. I dug a lot of ditches working with him and developed a real appreciation for what I have and what I'm doing now," Billick said.

By the time Brian Billick was in high school, he had decided he wanted to coach. His role model was Paul Womack, his high school football coach. "I saw his stature in the community and I wanted to be like him," said Billick.

Billick had several college scholarship offers as a safety/receiver but chose the Air Force Academy. After deciding that the academy was only for those wanted to make it their career, he transferred to Brigham Young a year later. Billick was good enough to get drafted by the San Francisco 49ers in 1977, but not good enough to stay in the league for longer than two seasons, the second with Dallas. He returned to coach at BYU, San Diego State, Utah State, Stanford and Minnesota before moving to Baltimore.

"I have been fortunate to work with some of the great coaches in high school, college and professional ball," said Billick. "Men like LaVell Edwards (BYU), Paul Womack (Redlands High), Frank Serrano (University of Redlands), Dan Reeves, Mike Ditka and Tom Landry."

"Dennis Green clearly had the biggest impact on my career and beliefs as a coach," said Billick. "By giving me my first coaching job in the NFL, then making me a coordinator after only one season, was obviously the major factor allowing me to become a head coach in the NFL.

"The thing I admire most about Denny is his competitiveness. Many of us compete to validate our own worth and standing. I have never met a man who loved the game as much for the sheer competition. As Denny is fond of saying, "This is not who I am, it's just what I do.' "

Family, Football &Family

Billick relaxes by turning on a little jazz, maybe some George Benson or Al Jarreau. Classical music is OK, but not like jazz. He'll read political novels and biographies - his favorite authors are Tom Clancy and James Michener - but nothing consumes his life like football.

Billick's wife, Kim, was once the secretary for Dallas Cowboys president Tex Schramm, so she's aware of the hours Billick needs to spend in the office and away from their daughters Keegan, 10, and Aubree, 15.

Billick leaves for the office around 5:30 a.m. and returns about 10 p.m. Rarely does he have free time, but when he does it's usually spent attending one of his kids' soccer or basketball games. "He adores those girls," said Kim.

Billick plans his work and works his plan. "Far too many coaches waste time thinking they are working when in fact they are spinning wheels," said Billick. "When I was hired someone asked me if I was a workaholic. My answer was no, that I am smarter than that. You cannot equate time on the job with production. You must constantly analyze not only what you are doing but how.

"With regard to my family, it is simple. When I am not working, I am with them," he said. "If you try to do too many things on and off the field with your personal and professional life, something is going to suffer and it is usually your family. By the same token, my family understands that they are not less important than my work, just more forgiving."

Billick is very protective of his family. He recently brought a 30-acre converted dairy farm that includes a 6,500-square-foot house, a barn, a pool, a pond and two guest cottages. He knows first what the NFL life can do to a coach's family, but still cherishes the job.

Kim runs the home. She is just as independent as Brian. "She makes this all go," said Billick. "Sometimes I try to come in and do the parent thing, and the kids say, "Let's get Mom in on this, Dad; you don't know the rules.' "

Billick knew that was all part of the job when he became a coach 25 years ago. "When I first got into coaching, a long-time veteran coach advised me, "If you can do something else, do so. You and you family will be much happier.' Although that may seem a somewhat negative view of my profession, it has a certain validity to it."

The teacher and the lessons
to be learned.

Billick runs his practices like a downtown cop handles traffic in New York. He constantly talks during practice, arms flailing, pointing fingers and at times running pass patterns. He is demanding, not demeaning, a teacher but not a preacher.

"He treats you like a man," said veteran special teams performer Bennie Thompson. "He is up front and direct. I like that in a coach."

No one is off limits, from linebacker Ray Lewis to offensive tackle Jonathan Ogden. When gregarious defensive tackle Tony Siragusa was challenged by Billick to lose weight, he took off 25 pounds.

"I have never met a player who didn't want to win, nor have I found too many who weren't willing to work," said Billick. "We spent the better part of this first off season focusing on the players and how we would work, and what our expectations for them would be with regard to practice, meetings and individual preparation. As an ancient Chinese philosopher once said, "First, you must win the battle, then fight the battle.' "

"Just because Brian has the reputation of working with computers and being extremely organized, people started assuming he couldn't relate to players," said Green, Minnesota's head coach. "That's not close to being true. Check around with guys like Cris Carter, Randall Cunningham, Brad Johnson and Robert Smith, and you'll hear a totally different story."

Billick seems to understand the psyche of today's player. He usually opens each practice with a monologue, sometimes about a game plan, other times about the dangers of sex, alcohol or drugs.

Maybe what the Ravens respect most about Billick is his decisiveness from naming Scott Mitchell his starting quarterback, an unpopular choice in Baltimore, to cutting troubled safety Ralph Staten after being 20 minutes late for a team meeting.

"It's a tough sell winning over players in this league," said Ravens Pro Bowl outside linebacker Peter Boulware. "But with Billick, he is more than just words. You can tell by the way he organizes, the way his practices are run. He lets you know that he has been there before, that he has a plan and if you follow it, we'll get there. A lot of the players are buying into it. I have."

Billick knows he is in a tough situation in Baltimore. He brought a lot of Minnesota to Baltimore including players fullback Charles Evans, tight end Greg DeLong, offensive lineman Everett Lindsay and receiver Qadry Ismail as well as coaches Wade Harman (tight ends coach) and Jeff Friday (strength and conditioning coach). But there is no Randy Moss, Cris Carter or Robert Smith. He'll also be making the transition from offensive coordinator to head coach. This could be the first time he'll handle adversity head on. "A position coach can and should stand too close to the work," said Billick. "It is his job to keep the attention to detail and specific perspective of the game plan as it pertains to his specific position. The coordinator must step back a little further than the position coach. He should be close enough to keep the attention to detail but must keep the bigger perspective to make sure the varying components of his offense or defense are working well together.

"The head coach must pull back even a step further than the coordinators," said Billick. "He must have the biggest perspective of all. It is his job to make sure the offense, defense and special teams interact together to maintain the balance that is needed to corroborate any type of sustained success in the NFL. But I'm fully confident in my ability that everything will work out in Baltimore."

"I'm interested to see how Brian handles adversity myself," said Ozzie Newsome, the Ravens vice president of player personnel, "because he hasn't lost in a long time. But I believe he has enough confidence in himself to pull through that kind of streak. This is a marathon. We're not looking for a quick fix with Brian. We're in this for the long haul with him."

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