[Possum Bait]

Hazzbeen,

You are correct, it is hard to coach without the support of the community. I think Coach Black has lost the support of the parents and fans at Whitley. Worse than that, I do not think the kids believe in him anymore. The kids seemed to just give up Friday Night. I saw them do the same thing at Lynn Camp. 75% of the crowd was gone by the start of the 4th quarter Friday Night. I have not talked to a single parent that had any remaining confidense in Coach Black. My writing just reflects what most people are thinking. I would say that at least 25 people, mostly parents, have approached me since my first posting on this issue, to tell me that they agree with me 100%

I think the real turning point was the Lynn Camp game. I actually had some hope until the Lynn Camp game. Do not get me wrong, I have been *****ing about the offensive scheme since the preseason scrimmages. I knew from the first time I saw it that Whitley would not be able to run the ball out of it. Common football sense tells you that a 75% running team can not run every play out of the shotgun without a legitmate dual threat qb. Labanon has been missed, on special teams especially. Even with Labanion, the offense would not work because Labanion can not throw the ball. Labanion was probably the 5th best ball carrier on the team, I can not understand why you would want your 5th best option to be your featured ball carrier. It just does not make sense. Now days, teams move their corners up in the box when McCumbers goes out of the game. It is the scheme not the talent.

I think everyone likes Coach Black. Heck, I like Coach Black. Coach Black is a good guy. He cares about the kids, he works hard and he, no doubt, wants to win. On every level except winning, I think he is a terrific guy. He just does not seem to understand how to win. He spends an inordinate amount of time trying to do fancy complicated things that actually hurt his teams chances of winning. For example, putting in different looks to his offense. Whitley has 3 or 4 different formations for each play, a lot of hoop-la for a play which usually involves a long snap followed by a run to the 6 hole. It does not make any difference what the formation is, as soon as the ball is snapped everyone on the defensive line immediately reads the play because they can contiuously see the ball.

I think the root of Coach Black's problem may actually be too much thinking. Instead of focussing and developing what his team can do best and consequently forcing other teams to adapt to his teams strengths, Coach Black is always trying to adjust what his team does to address the other teams strengths. It seems that Coach Black is always coaching from the perspective that the opposing team has superior personel. In reality, Whitley has had superior or at least equally talented personel in most of its games this year. If Coach Black could just come to the conclusion that he has the talent to win and that he can win by running the ball down the other teams throat on offense and playing hard nosed aggressive defense, he would immediately see more success.

Using the same defensive scheme they have used all year (assuming kids like #26, #12. #9, and #34 are playing in the correct positions as they have recently), Whitley could have lined up in some sort of time proven power running scheme (Wind T, veer, wish bone, ect.), executed 6 or 7 basic plays and they would be 7-2 or no worse than 6-3.

I can see this, most others can see this, Why can't Coach Black see this. Come on Coach Black, play like you have the superior team because in most cases you do. Concentrate on doing on what you can do well. This change in phylosophy alone might win the district.