Tiger Head Football Coach Blog

Spring Football and BBQ

SPRING FOOTBALL

Spring comes in a hurry here in South Dakota – But it doesn’t come without a fight from mother-nature, as we all know.  We are 10 days into our spring practices that have included indoor workouts and some great days out in the sun.  We have 56 players out for spring football with a solid depth.  Our best surprise of the spring has been the progress of our defense – They have just been improving everyday and are just getting downright “sticky”.  We expected the offense to be good and they are – Jon Doom is looking like the experienced leader that he should be and the redshirts of last season are showing that they will be making an impact in 08.  We are expecting 30+ recruits to join us in the fall that will bring our roster up to around 90 players total, a significant increase over last year – and the talent is extremely good in the class. 

We close out our spring practices this Saturday 10 am on campus.  We will hold our annual Team and Parents BBQ following the scrimmage at the practice field – We hope that you can all join us, as we close out the year and head into summer.  There should be many of our Recruits and their parents there as well, so come out and meet the new Tigers.

The Shootout

On the Banks of the Big Blackfoot

If you have ever seen the movie “A River Runs Through it” you might remember the scene of the reverend McClain and his boys after a day of fly-fishing the Big Blackfoot River.  Each of the boys placed their catch in front of their father – both boys had caught two very nice Montana Cutthroat Trout and their father was proud for each of them.  Then the good reverend opened his creel and laid the enormous rainbow which he had caught beside the boy’s catch.  He said: “The lord had blessed us all today; it’s just so, that he has been especially good to me”.  On Saturday October 27^th in Hastings, NE the DWU Tigers felt a lot like the good old reverend.  An offensive shootout that produced a combined 1100 yards in total offense some last minute heroics by Tanner Tucker and Sergio Leon and some timely penalties produced a 34-31 victory over an opponent that DWU has never beaten in 13 previous meetings.  The list of hero’s is large.  Before Tanner Tucker could make his entry and pull off the second dramatic finish of his career; Jon Doom had to leave the game with an injury.  Doom had had his best day, going 20 of 29 for 316 yards and two TD’s making a number of “Big” plays with his feet and never taking a sac all afternoon.  Keith Jones rushed for 141 yards including a 61 yard run which concluded with a full somersault into the end-zone.  The judges ruled the run a leap into history because it was the longest run from scrimmage in 3 seasons and Jones’ first rushing TD of his career.  The somersault received a 15 yd Un-Sportsmanlike-Penalty, and only a “4” for artistic value because Jones landed on his ass.  We quickly absolved him of all end-zone sins and got on with the game.  Bubba Slaba and Jesse Ayers were workhorses on the receiving end for Doom; they had 9 and 8 catches respectively with Ayers scoring 2 TD’s.  “Real joy comes with sacrificing with others in a worthy cause”; and if this is so, there was much joy.  Alan Swartz played the entire game with such a banged up shoulder he could hardly lift it and still managed a 9 yd TD run and critical blocking the entire day.  Lynn Guecke overcame a sprained ankle in the first half to finish the game, Jon McDaniel and Justin Buehring did the same.  James Hansen and Zach Zephier provided the finest day of leadership and effort you could imagine.  Rudy Neiwenhius played so hard he knocked a guy out in the fourth quarter.  On Defense Kyle Meier and Daniel Wysong led the charge, Jordan Gau tallied the most tackles but the real story lies a lot deeper.  This defensive crew is too young, too small and too inexperienced but don’t tell them that!  These guys play like a pack of wolves and have the heart and desire of champions.  They’re getting the experience and they will grow and you simply have to tip your hat to them in the effort column, because they played with passion.

Tigers and Bulldogs

Great Virtues Come By Great Trials

“It’s never over till it’s over” goes the old saying.  One of the special gems of college sports and lessons learned over the course of a life living in them.  A big play made by Jon Doom throwing to Bubba Slabba followed by a great interception return by Jordan Gau gave us another hint to that fabled lesson yesterday.  With just over 4 minutes on the clock, we had a decision to kick deep and rely on our defense to hold or attempt an on-side kick and take our chances – We chose the former and came up short in 24-31 loss.  Hind sight is always the best choice; unfortunately, it’s always inadmissible evidence.  You couldn’t have watched the game and not been proud of the effort and competitive spirit of the Tigers.  We lost Boogie Blossum in the game and Brady Hofer whose names were added to the 4077^th Mash unit squad for 2007, their losses were very costly like all the rest of the corp that have gone down this year – But we continued to fight with a great effort.  Daniel Wysong led the defense with 16 tackles in the game along with Lucas Sieve and Ryan Deibert.  Rudy Neiwenhuis caught his first TD in the game, a clutch catch that brought us to within a TD in the final stanza.  With this young of a squad and so many injuries to overcome in a season you can only tell that the future is extremely bright – these guys know how to stick together, fight together and their trials are forging them into a TEAM

Tiger Pride

TEAMWORK:

“IT IS A FACT IN THE RIGHT FORMAITON, THE LIFTING POWER OF MANY WINGS CAN ACHIEVE TWICE THE DISTANCE OF ANY BIRD FLYING ALONE”

I have a large picture that hangs over my desk with these words on it.  You  might say that I have always been greatly attracted to poems, quotes, stories and just about any inspirational theme my entire life – I believe that’s why coaching football has always been such a great pleasure.  Young men seek after what all young men seek after on the grid iron, the court or the ball field.  Young men are in their perfect place testing themselves and giving their best to achieve some great accomplishment.  We have been tested this season with a number of serious injuries – last week alone we had seven starters out.  These are the kind of trials that test everyone on a team.  A great coach once said:       “Injuries create depth” how true that is.  They also create opportunities; and, if there is one lesson that sport can teach a young person – Taking advantage of your opportunities in life might just be very near the top of the list.  Lucas Sieve-LB, Ben Zimmer-DL, Ivan Hofer-DL, Lynn Guecke-OL all stepped in the lineup this last week and seized the moment.  Like the common coaching phrase goes when youth meets the head-on challenges of experienced players “Welcome to college football”.  These guys stuck their noses in there and rose to the occasion – I couldn’t be prouder of them.  In fact, we lined up with 16 freshmen and sophomores against the #1 team in the nation and we earned a little respect in the contest – Why? Because we have a great team family and we lift each other up.

The first half of the season has been pretty rough on the record book; we sit at 1-5 which is well below our expectations.  In reality, we have probably only lost one game that we really should have won and we have missed taking advantage of some other opportunities.  That can be expected in a young team and it’s nothing to lose sleep over.  With seven starters out and the majority of them in the OL and DL we have some challenges ahead of us in our final four games.  If you have ever seen the movie “Braveheart” and you can recall the final scene?  Like the Scots charging the field at Bannockburn we are charging into the final four of our season.  Maybe you will say of us, “they fought like Warrior Poets, they fought like Scotchmen and won their freedom”

Mama said: "There'd be days like this"

I remember an old song that had these lines:  “Mama said there’d be days like this, there’d be days like this mama said”.  When my three sons were all young I can remember so many times when as a parent you would wonder if they were ever going to grow up and learn from they’re silly mistakes.  Saturdays 31-7 loss to Morningside gave brought back of the same recollections.  Joe Paterno once said the “Will to Win is not nearly as important as the Will to Prepare”.  When we think back about our youth we tend to remember sunny days and the simple times which life once was; rarely, do we remember a sense of urgency in those days.  Morningside was a good football team and we needed to start the game fast with a high tempo and be very sharp.  That takes a specific attitude and a mind-set of readiness.  We fell a little shy of that and suffered the consequences.  We turned the ball over twice in bad field position which resulted in 10 points for our opponents and we overthrew a ball to a wide open receiver from the 8 yd line for another turnover.  The game probably should have ended 14-21 and maybe we would feel somewhat better about our day – But, that is all make believe and we can choose to believe what we want to.  One of the best teaching tools in sports revolves around learning from our mistakes, picking ourselves up just one more time and building a steadfast spirit of belief in ourselves.  We have just such a task in front of us now.  My three sons’ have all grown up; they have learned from silly mistakes and have become strong leaders.  I believe this team will too. Mama was right, there would be days like this; but, she also said: “Don’t throw the baby out with the bath-water”.

Close but no Cigar

“Close but No Cigar”

The game started off like a horseshoe match with each team throwing their best “ringers” and laying a few close shots in to score; but football isn’t horseshoe’s and close doesn’t count in the end.  This was probably the best DWU football game ever played against a ranked opponent since the miracle season of 94’ and the Blue & White faithful had a lot of  reason’s to show their pride in Orange City last night.  Some of those reasons were seeing the physical play of guys like Daniel Wysong, Kyle Meier and

Kurtis Lane

in the defensive trenches.  Then there was Dane Carlson intercepting another pass and returning this one all the way on the first play of the second half to pull his team even on the scoreboard. It was great to have Derek Ashley back in the lineup making an impact. James Hansen and Cody Bier were on again producing stellar performances from their guard positions and tackles Kyle Byrd and Zach Zephier were tough, as well.  Jessie Ayers had the big night receiving hauling in 7 receptions and Bubba Slabba snagged four.  Colby McGinley was the leading ground man among a stable of backs and scored once and Boogie Blossum also scored his first collegiate TD.   The beginning of the game looked like business was going as usual with the Offense scoring on it’s first two possessions and looking very crisp – but the O’s started to get a little sluggish and were only able to cap off the first half with a 44 yard field goal by Sergio Leon as time expired for intermission.  With Carlson’s INT for a TD to open the second half the Blue and White pulled even at 23 all.  Each team followed with a TD of their own to knot the game at 30 love midway through the third quarter.  Then the fireworks got going – for real – somewhere in the tiny hamlet of

Orange

City

totally unrelated to the game a fireworks display started and mystically the game officials turned into goblins of evil.  On a third and one with game knotted at 30 the Red Raiders plowed into the Tiger defense the red and white ball carrier went airborne on his attempt to get a single yard and was met with a punishing hit, losing the ball in mid-air it fell to the ground and OLBer Ryan Wagner recovered giving the good guys the ball and stopping what was probably the most important drive of the game.  The Tiger offense took the field and approached the Line of Scrimmage; when all of a sudden the “Referee” stopped the game.  The explanation was this:  “Coach, you’re not going to like this but we screwed up and blew an inadvertent whistle on the play – the ball goes back to NWC and they get to repeat third down”.  It was the first time I have totally agreed with an official – “I didn’t like it at all”.  To make matters worse they whistled us for an unsportsmanlike penalty that occurred right in front of me two plays latter.  I saw the play from the beginning and in all fairness to the officials; I would say it was very poor judgment on their parts.  It was all a real momentum buster and although we had time, we did not recover the momentum.  Like grandma used to say:  “Life happens while you breathe”.  It was a very good game, we played hard and had our chances but we came up short.  We were not short on encouragement or pride in our team though – this is a fine group of lads and we will continue to get better.

Dwu 47 Midland Lutheran 7

A Great Effort

The 2007 football season opened with 2-A-Day practices like most college programs in the country.  The theme of camp was very familiar to the theme of the previous 2 years.  “Building success is all about seeking perfection”.  How do you do that?  It’s very simple to put into words but not so simple to “flesh out” in practical terms; but you begin like this.  Number #1, Know you job.  Your job looks like this:  You have complete and total control over three things; and they are: your attitude, your effort and your enthusiasm.  Number #2, Do your job.  Today was our season opener against

Midland

Lutheran

College

.  The score was 47-7 in our favor and outstanding performances were turned in by many.  KMIT Radio picked Junior Outside-Linebacker Ryan Deibert as the MVP of the game for fumble recovery, a tipped pass that resulted in an interception and a huge Sack – All three plays resulted in offensive TD’s for us and turned the “tide” of the game in our favor.  Daniel Wysong and Dane Carlson also had several big plays for the defense and Derby Weisen along with Eric Adolph stood out big for the Tiger Defense.  Jon Doom threw 3 TD passes and rushed 10 times for 61 yards to lead the Offense.  The Tigers had 11 players carry the football for a total of 324 yards rushing and 9 receivers caught passes for 231 yards and 4 TD’s.  Newcomer Juan Magallon had 3 catches for 103 yards and a score and Bubba Slaba made two huge catches to keep the Tiger offense on track and he also had a TD pass from Doom.  Tanner Tucker was 8-of-15 and had a 51 scoring strike to Magallon.  Sergio Leon snagged the other TD reception.  Zach Zephier, Cody Bier, Dennis McDaniel, Justin Buehring, James Hansen and Kirk Byrd had great performances up front for the Offense.  Alan Swartz led the rushing attack with 89 yards and 2 scores, followed by Boogie Blossum and Keith Jones – Jones also had a TD reception. 

Kansas

and Kyal Middeltent teamed up in the backfield for the final score of the day going 71 yards in 9 plays.  When you step back and take a good look at the day you have to make this simple analysis.  Number #1, We had a great attitude today, We gave a great effort today and we showed a lot of enthusiasm.  Number #2, We did our job today and it was a blast.

Camp Opens for 2007

2007 “Camp” Opens

Friday August 10^th, 2007 Eighty-Four players reported to camp for the DWU Tigers.

60 from the state of SD; and, the rest from Wyoming, Montana, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Oregon, California, Texas, New Mexico, Louisiana and New Jersey.  The lads look to be in great shape heading off to their first day of Campus Orientation which will conclude this evening with a team movie produced by the DWU Football Staff and the Wide screen presentation of “The 300”.  The full team will be totally involved over the next two-days in the craziest games known to football – It’s called “Breakaway” and it’s a “Gas”.  The next 48 hours will prepare the team to enter official practices on Monday the 13^th.  The best sports season has just begun and you can tell this camp is going to be special

July 9, 2007

I Can See It!

In four weeks and few days the 2007 Tiger Football Camp

will be cranking up.  The new equipment has arrived, the Practice

plans are finished and I can see the beginning,

The new practice field looks great and camp is not too far away.  We’ve had a great group of new young guys who have

attended the Wednesday night workouts – This is a great group of young talented players that will be joining us in August

Zig Ziglar, writes:  “You can’t hit a target you cannot see, and you

cannot see a target you do not have”.

What are you aiming for?  Can you see it?

My expectations are HIGH – The 2007 Camp will be best camp you have ever

been a part of.  You will work harder, and have more fun than you

ever thought could happen in a fall camp.  And the best part is this;

you will become the best team to play the game at DWU in decades.

Can you see it!

Curiosity, Confidence, Courage and Constancy are the secrets of making

dreams come true – The key is confidence – When you believe in

something, like I believe in you – You believe in it all the way

Implicitly and unquestionably.

June 6

The Big Secret:

Booker T

Washington

, wrote:

·       "I think I began learning long ago that those who are happiest are those who do the most for others"

Bill Maynard, wrote:

·       ”It does not need to be a choice between head decisions and heart decisions.  An organization that balances head decisions and heart decisions has a far greater potential for achieving and sustaining success than an organization that doesn't have heart"

In the Game of football the key to success is "Teamwork".  This isn't rocket science, everyone knows it.

Vince Lombardi, wrote: 

·       "The quality of a man's life is in direct proportion to his commitment to excellence."

Winston Churchill, wrote: 

·       "The price of greatness is responsibility."

Ralph Waldo Emerson, wrote: 

·       "The reward of a thing well done is to have done it."

In every organization there are needs; and our's is no different.  You will play a critical role.

Todd Wagner, Wrote:

·         "Everybody can do something that makes a difference."

Norman Vincent Peale, wrote:

·       "Always be on the lookout for the Big Idea that can change your life and the lives of others."

The most successful players have a vision of what they want to accomplish.  Great players know that it's OK to fail - just make sure you fail forward.  Leaders understand that when others grow, they intern will grow.  The successful ones have a willingness to change and challenge not only themselves but everyone around them.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery, wrote:

·       “A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it; bearing within him the image of a cathedral."

We're all working together - That's the secret - Sam Walton