1960's Vic Rowen (Poppa Gator)

Vic is still living, & his son (Keith) is coaching in the NFL.

In 1982 - Vic offered me the job as "OC" San Francisco St (which I could not accept because it represented a coast to coast move for a salary cut)). If you know Vic, tell him hello for me.

He then gave the job to Mike Holmgren!

Vic was a close personal friend of Bill Walsh. He offered me total control of the offense.

I would have run the Gibbs motions/shifts/formations, along with HIS runs & play action. The DROPBACK game would have been a MIXTURE of Gibbs/Walsh (since we would have had access to visit Walsh at any time, since he & Vic were so close)!

J.C. - the ONLY difference in adapting Pro offense (techniques, schemes, etc) to High School is that you must limit the % of the offense you put in due to TIME RESTRAINTS!!!!!

ANY play that the Pros use, and ANY technique that the pros use can be used equally as well in High School IF YOU SPEND THE SAME % OF YOUR PRACTICE TIME TEACHING IT!!!!!

For example - Walsh ALWAYS made the statement that: "In the PRE-SEASON, you take the number of techniques needed at a given position (for example: OT) and divide that into the number of practice MINUTES you have before the game, and make sure every technique gets it's "due time". He said that: "You isolate EACH fundamental, and have a "skills checklist" for each game and/or season"!

His O-Line had THIRTY TWO TECHNIQUES (you can't teach 1/4 that number in HS BECAUSE of TIME factors). Now, the way you do this is to (in HIGH SCHOOL) teach far fewer techniques (in direct proportion to the number of MINUTES you have available)! IF you run Bill Walsh (or Joe Gibbs') offense, & you have 1/4 the time he does to get ready for the game - then don't use over 1/4 of his offense! The trick is to select that 1/4 that best fits your personnel!!!!!

We had position "CHECK LISTS" for each position, & made our practice plans meticulously to INSURE that EVERY technique was worked on EVERY week! You don't want to put in a play that the TACKLE pulls to lead a Toss ("80 TRUCK") only to have the O-Line coach tell you on GAME night that "you forgot to schedule me time in practice this week for OT pulls". Remember the 6 P's: "PRIOR PLANNING PREVENTS PISS POOR PERFORMANCE"

I can remember back to 1961 when people (referring to ADVANCED College & NFL offenses) said - "YOU CAN'T DO THAT IT HIGH SCHOOL". That is utter BULL S---! ALL these offenses WERE implemented WELL in High School by coaches who knew HOW TO ADAPT THE SYSTEM TO THE TIME THEY HAD TO TEACH IT!!!!! The ONLY thing you have in COMMON with your opponent is TIME (I know as soon as I say that, somebody will fire back that his Principal won't let him stay on the field as long as his opponent's do - my only answer to that it to "DO LESS & DO IT BETTER")!

I hear far too many coaches on this site say: "I'm going to make the Zone schemes, and the Counter/Power schemes a PART OF MY OFFENSE! IMO - no such thing can happen - it must BE your offense (if that is what you CHOSE to run). When coaches like Joe Bugel, Russ Grimm, & A Gibbs say that it is very difficult to major in BOTH the Zone schemes AND the Counter/Power schemes in the NFL, how can Youth League, Junior High, & High School coaches successfully teach MORE?

I firmly do not believe that any of this has a thing to do with the "speed at which the pro game is played". Speed doesn't have anything to do with it. If I run a SLOW 5.5 40, & you run a SLOWER 5.9 40 - then I am FASTER than you!!!!!!!! SPEED IS TOTALLY RELATIVE TO THE SPEED OF YOUR OPPONENTS!!!!!

All of this is, of course, MY belief, & as usual, I hope I don't step on any toes.

PS: Our Sophmore RB (Patrick Mills) recently was electronically timed at 4.31. He had close to 1,400 yds rushing - almost ALL of it on the Counter/Power series. The following was copied from the Virginia High School League site:

The fastest time clocked at the combine was a 4.31 seconds by Matoaca High School standout rising junior running back Patrick Mills. Mills rushed for 1,381 yards this past season on 195 carries and scored 13 touchdowns

Hand held stopwatches went out with the horse & buggy!

When D'Angelo Hall was at Deep Creek HS (where I coached for many years) AFTER I left, he ran the 40 in the 4.1's. He is now starting at Corner for the Atlanta Falcons (after being All-American at Va Tech).