[Husker] When a Coach Gets Fired

[richards todd]

I played high school ball at LHS in the mid 70's.  In
75 I think, our team went either 1-8, or 0-8-1, I
don't remember exactly.

We had one of the worst coaches you could imagine.  I
won't name him, but he was very abusive, hitting and
punching kids at practice.  It wasn't unusual for week
day practices to last 2.5 - 3 hours with full contact
every day on game weeks.  Summer practice were 3 a
days and water was withheld and salt pills were given
out instead.

One day after the season the coach called us in to
tell the team that he had been fired.  You would be
surprised to see how many players cried and affirmed
their loyalty to this man who was a lousy coach, and a
questionable human being at the time.  I remember
being very upset.

The next year we get Larry Frost as head coach who
takes us to a winning season in his first year, and
then the next year, my senior year, we were a pretty
darn good football team.

My point is this;  Those Nebraska players, (most of
them anyway), will identify with the coaches they have
no matter how bad of coaches they are.  They spend
many hours together, sweating, freezing, bleeding,
training room, film room, buses and airplanes,
restaurants, etc....   When these coaches are under
attack, or when they are fired, the players will react
in a surprising way.  They will not be relieved, at
least not at first.  The players loyalty runs deep,
and it will take a little while for the loyalty and
anger to cycle through.

I know how this works having been through it before,
although not at the D-1 level.  However, I feel the
dynamics are quite the same at all levels where huge
investments of time and effort are involved.

Todd in Tennessee

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