The Way It Used To Be
College football coaching legends share their experiences on the gridiron before laptops, charter jets and mega-million dollar facilities
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More from this issue
If there is one
constant, it is that there are no constants. Over time, everything
changes and nothing remains quite the same. Never is this more evident
than in the profession of coaching college football.
American Football Monthly recently sat down with a few of the game’s
greatest coaches for a peek inside the ever-changing world of college
football. From their first job to their last, their first championship
season to their first losing season,
AFM has captured it all –
in their words. Men like Eddie Robinson, Tom Osborne, Barry Switzer,
Spike Dykes and Gene Stallings have provided
AFM with an exclusive
journey down memory lane. Maybe you can’t walk in their shoes,
but perhaps you can at least try them on. Over the course of the
next few months,
AFM will feature several of these “firsts”
in each issue. So sit back and enjoy the game of football “the
way it used to be.”
Rivalries ...
John H. Vaught (Mississippi, 1947-1970; 1973)
“First, you think of the coaches. Wherever Bear Bryant was. Then there
were coaches like Bob Neyland at Tennessee, Charlie McClendon at LSU, and Frank
Broyles at Arkansas. Our people wanted to beat LSU. We had a great victory over
Tennessee (43-13) in Memphis my first year as head coach. General Neyland had
never lost to the University of Mississippi before I came here. I’m telling
you, he didn’t like that at all. We beat him again the next year (16-13),
also in Memphis. We played most of the games in Memphis. They (Tennessee) were
glad to get us in Memphis, because it was a home state game for them. They didn’t
realize that it was really a home game for us. We were pretty popular in Memphis
at that time. We finally beat them in Knoxville in 1960, but Neyland wasn’t
the coach. He was the athletic director then and Bowden Wyatt was the head coach.
Neyland used what we called the Wide Tackle 6 defense against everybody, no matter
what offense you used. I just knew the Wide Tackle 6 defense couldn’t stop
the offense we were operating with. I convinced our players that we had about
two or three plays we could run and would option at the line of scrimmage and
go where the weakness was. We were able to move the ball pretty well against
them. He quit playing us.
“LSU was always a big rivalry. We basically played the ball game down there
almost every year. We didn’t have to do that, but I, personally, chose
to do that. Getting half of the gate receipts had a lot to do with it. I also
knew we could beat them.”
NOTE: During the Vaught era, Ole Miss played LSU in Baton Rouge 16 of 20 meetings,
with three in Oxford and one in New Orleans (1960 Sugar Bowl). More from Coach
Vaught in upcoming issues of AFM.
Recruiting ...
Don Nehlen (West Virginia, 1980-2000)
“In 1983, we were recruiting both Major Harris and Browning Nagle at quarterback
for West Virginia. We had a home appointment at Browning Nagle’s house at 7
p.m. in Pinellas Park (outside of Tampa) which was where he lived. John ‘Doc’ Holiday,
who was my assistant coach and who recruited the State of Florida, and I were
in Miami and we got fouled up with the airplane. I can’t remember now,
but I think it was due to weather. Anyway it delayed our flight by about two
hours. So when we landed in Tampa, it’s now 7 p.m. ... so, we get Browning
on the phone and apologize for the delay and, of course, he says it’s no
big deal and that his parents were home and whenever we got there would be fine.
“I told Doc, ‘Doc, there is no sense in us renting a car and trying
to find this place, let’s just get a taxi so we are not two hours late – after
all, an hour and a half is bad enough.’ Now, Doc agreed to get a taxi even
though he admitted that he had been there before and had a pretty good idea as
to the location. So, we got in the taxi and started on our way.
After a few minutes, Doc tells the cab driver to take a left ... we go a little
more and Doc tells the cab driver to take a right ... and then all of the sudden
we are on a dead-end dirt road. Well, all of the sudden the taxi driver stops
the car and puts his arms in the air and says, ‘Are you damn guys gonna
rob me?’
“Doc and I are sitting in back seat of this taxi cab with the driver’s
hands in the air and we just start laughing.
I said I am really sorry and explained to him what we were trying to do. Anyway,
he was from Pittsburgh, which is close to Morgantown, and when I told him who
I was he said, ‘Oh my gosh, you are Coach Nehlen.’ I told him that
we sure weren’t gonna rob him.
“We finally get to Browning’s house about an hour and a half later.
I told the cab driver that we would be done in about an hour. Well, he said he
would be back for us and then he took off with all of our bags in the car.
“He came back and we got Browning!”
NOTE: West Virginia successfully recruited both Major Harris
and
Browning Nagle. Nagle later transferred to Louisville before becoming a first-round
draft choice
by the New York Jets. Coach Nehlen coached Nagle his senior year at the East-West
Shrine game.
More from Coach Nehlen in upcoming issues of AFM.