How to win 9 state championships : Episode 3: How the Run and Shoot was ahead of Defenses
9 min readHow to win 9 state championships : Episode 3: How the Run and Shoot was ahead of Defenses
Oh he's in the back field yeah that's What that's about that's about right you Know like and the thing was though Really that's where your zone game came In the Run game you probably would Calling it s opposite at that time or That's what I think some people were Calling with the running back Quarterback sens was like a Sprint draw Concept exactly it wasn't a lot of Pulling and then that would come in but I think the interesting thing was here's A butler story for you Butler wins a Game no Butler loses a game I think lost The game against Mountain Lakes yep Usually we l I think it might have been A Thanksgiving game I don't know but that had to be a Playoff game but a kid from Butler had 21 catches in the game yep that would be Mike O'Brien he set the record that year I think he caught 110 in the year Because they played the trips sing and He single receiver speed out comeback Cur post pump and go Mike O'Brien he Went to wils University yeah so I Remember talking to Daryl Fusco about That because Doug Wilson Wilkins was the Head coach he's M and I said Daryl he Said well was kind of involved with the Defense a great Job Yeah great Job 21 yeah it was it was wild I mean
Look there was games when I would have 11 catches and no touchdowns like stuff Like that you know what I mean like we Would sling one time sophomore year I Think we slung it I think we had 72 pass Attempts in a game yeah it was crazy in A high school game yeah against Madison It was crazy H H how do you think that Changed uh uh um High School football in In where you were obviously especially First in North Jersey um because because North Jersey football and and I'm Obviously we're down the shore now right And Shore is starting to try to catch up Um but uh I I I came down and was Running wide open stuff at Red Bank Looking at me like I had 10 heads first Two games I know they're like we scored 50 points scored 50 on the opening night And people were like what Evol fairly Quickly to try and stop it to stop this Uh but um but you're right yeah we Dropped 50 to opening night and it was Like I'm like this thing supposed to be Good they never they didn't come out Cover trips they didn't change no cover They didn't cover but and I remember you Used to laugh because because I think You used to say when we play you would Play Garf I think it was Garfield you Would say Garfield and they would never Come out and cover trips like they would Lo it was ly and I was l l Lo Who's our guy who's our guy that played
There Dave oh bah Bera well well we you know you wanted The evolution I'll give you a quick to Loi story so we're playing him one year It's 99 we just beat 98 I think we won Our section Loi won their section Weren't in the same section really Bizarre right um we didn't play each Other in that weird bpsl thing right uh PCT won their section and Patterson Catholic beat the other two teams in That whole group whatever it was so Whoever's in in it right so we get him Next year in 99 and it's a it's an Afternoon game I think it was a uh you Know weekday game probably because of The Jewish holiday so we play them over There and uh we come out in trips they Got two guys out there now I wouldn't do This as a head coach so I'm like getting Curious I'm like let's see if we can put Four guys out there so we go out in Quads I got two so so then I'm thinking Oh what the heck one guy's going to be An El about five guys out there we put Any on the other side and they said two And we're just throwing the ball think Run right down the field I mean I think This nobody's even getting dirty of Course one of them is Grant Adams you Know so nobody's getting dirty yeah that Helps because Grant grob gonna tackle Him anyway we talk I believe his brother Was a freshman in that game that I
Played yeah he play Blake played a pen I Thought he'd play Sprint at pen I had Left Glenrock but then I looked at was Fresh but he wanted to play with the With the varsity and yeah he he played He saw some time I I actually caugh a Pass grant grant was like double jointed Grant the one kid he coached on a Primier you never taught Grant how to Block you just talk like that you know Yeah do that all right and he was a walk He was a tackling machine and Dave Appreciate this we had Mel Brown before Him and we who played at Iowa and we had Grant who played at Boston College who I Think got on the field Grant you have to Ask him his initial way of getting on The field at Boston College was such a Good blocker they would with him all Time his motion and stuff Grant should Have played defense in my opinion yes And Mel should have played offense Because Mel long jumped on was 24 feet I Know Yeah he might still he held like the Group one record I don't know if you Guys are one or two at the time we were One in most of his career but yeah but The evolution is you know you talked About veto in 92 a good friend of mine Brian Young uh was coaching with me I Just got in to Glenrock and we went to Watch the opening game at Clifton Between P guy I think in Clifton and it
Was pouring rain out it was pouring rain And the only guy he has to do more for His team I think ever than than uh veto Was was probably Dave when he was a Sadle bro Dave will tell he had a great Arm he punted he returned kicks he Kicked off right there Same listen Dave Dave kicked off three Times the whole season because that's The only touchdowns they scored right Yeah if we had to throw a long pass they Pitch it to I threw it as far as I could That's right so but Veto V would turn around yeah veto would Turn around play middle linebacker yes He was an excellent middle linebacker Too he would throw the ball it was Pouring out he threw the ball like he Was like it was bone dry out there I was Like well this is Sensational this kid's He had the DMO kid playing for him and a Lopez kid playing running back all right You know and and I was like well these Are this was very impressive so I think That really started the evolution really The Butler uh Raam is Catholic I guess I Guess you could say that that my Camp Was in the set first yeah but the true Running shoot I think was really Bob Jones all right and then Coach di who You know when he he took the job he was Like let's go with this so and I think You started to see more and more and I
Get you know with the past game a few Guys you could look at remember the Middle flood from poton Lakes nobody did Like that in Sprint draw all right Everything out of the eye and then the Other team was uh what Bob Valley did in The past game of Cresco was fantastic Yeah we saw them in the first round our First round that was the year they Changed the section my senior year so That was 2003 season so my senior year Was when they started tweaking the Sections and now we were going to start Playing Bergen County teams and it was Like oh this is a little different so we Had to see Cresco in the first round Then we saw you guys in the second round You know at Glenrock and it was like a Whole different and people were finally Like oh now we finally get to see who Stacks up against too yeah you know so Found out we were pretty overrated Right hey man we just I always credit it To like the conference we played in at Northern Hills was uh Banshee man we I Mean we had to play I mean we played all Bigger schools right you're talking Montville Panic you know Caldwell was Our Thanksgiving Day game I mean you Just always Madison I mean you played Really good teams all year that were Bigger so you accumulated all those Power points you know Butler when we Made that run four straight I mean we
Would get in the playoffs at four and Four and then just rip through everybody Because you had played those better Teams the entire time now you look at Those teams like I look at who they're Playing and I'm going oh man Like I'll tell you something interesting Um uh so I played veto and DJ you'll Find this interesting so uh Mike Cel was The offensive coordinator my sophomore Year at sbook Patterson Catholic veto Was a freshman and and uh um they were Running the running shoot um in that Game and it came down to the end like One of their receivers ran around I held Them and tackled them uh and they didn't Throw a flag and then we got the ball Ran it out yeah but it I mean even there We were like our solution to it was and It wasn't a good solution because we Couldn't really stop it our solution was Like to man them up and play one over to Top right because because you Know my who who is my my head coach was Steve Gertie at the time so Steve Gertie Was the uh uh and that was Steve C's Solution that to anything that caused Him trouble Blitz it and and play a man Hope for the best yeah I don't think That's changed though you know I think It's changed I think any of the any Offenses you're in but particularly guys In the open sets uh you know it's almost Like what it's like chicken in the egg
Should we should we just run our base Stuff on air or or just tell tell the Kids the truth which is let's go against Blitz right now yep let's go against Blitz right now you got to have an Answer for Blitz and everything else is Easy everything yep if you can if you Can handle that aspect of the whole Thing and like that was one of the Things that we really kind of saw when We came down here was like you know the Blitzing aspect of it it was like you Know what I mean like some guys did some Guys didn't some guys literally would Sit in their sets and not adjust Whatsoever to anything that we did when We first got down here and we just we're Kind of looking at each other like Waiting for them to adjust so that now We can counter and we didn't have to we Kind of just stayed in what we did and We were successful with it yeah yeah I Think now you're starting to see uh you Know some changes with that but you Talking about the evolution yeah or Devolving I mean true true you're seeing A lot more compression stuff and working To the outside right yeah because like You know now you see that Michigan Right Michigan's got that example like this Year their run game they got all those Guys compacted into the box and Everything happens in circles right so Like
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