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Post by Village Aztec on Jul 2, 2010 12:35:14 GMT -8
You have all read articles on Don Coryell these last 2 days. Great NFL pro players have stated that we had a number of coaches ahead of the NFL.
I ask how could this be since we were D2?
We only had about 45 guys. No depth.
What us old timers ask is how come we could do it then? We did not have as many coaches as D1 schools.
You can't tell me we were out recruiting the big schools. Part of the answer is we did not have everyone after Jr. College players.
My answer is we were coaching up players and out coaching the teams we played. Perhaps we had the best coaches in D2?
I can tell you we were not playing our coaches much money. I guess they wanted to learn from a smart coach and they needed an entry into becoming a coach.
So for you younger guys Don had to recruit half a team every year.
He had only 20 days to coach them up Now we say do not go after Jr. College guys because it takes half a year to integrate them into a team.
So Don had to be one of the greatest coach in College history.
He also found them a job and rented off campus apartments. They loved that freedom.
We had no weight room, or Hall of fame.
Don was always busy. We only had Dr. Brown.
When he was hired he went out and got one other coach and started recruiting.
Don walked to school 5 miles up hill both ways in the rain. Just kidding. I am telling you he stated out with NOTHING. Look what he gave us. If he was head coach now with what we now have we would be a top ten time every year. He did not need a big time league. He just scored so much that he put us on the map.
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Post by AztecWilliam on Jul 2, 2010 12:48:31 GMT -8
Saint Don! Ah, yes, one of the great coaches. A different era, to be sure. He could bring in a couple of dozen JUCOs every year and get them ready to contribute almost at once. There's no doubt that he and his staff chose well.
Today it's impossible to build a team only using JC recruits. For one thing, you must have an average of 76 or 77 scholarship players to remain eligible for the FBS. Even if you red-shirted every one of 25 JUCOs each year (25 being the max for new scholarships granted every year) you would barely reach that 76 player minimum, and that would leave you with only 50 active.
And those of us who are familiar with the history of the program know how terrible the facilities (locker rooms, weight rooms, etc.) were in the 1960s.
And yet, with all those handicaps, the Aztecs took off like a rocket under Coryell and his staff. I doubt that any school anywhere ever experienced the rapid rise from such humble beginnings as did SDSU under Don Coryell. A unique man who came along at just the right moment.
We should be so lucky to repeat that success under current conditions!
AzWm
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Post by justafan on Jul 2, 2010 15:24:24 GMT -8
JYP. We beat the guys in our conference on a regular basis and often beat the guys from name conferences then. So stick your TJ Tech reference up your Ass and quit trying to marginalize his accomplishments
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Post by Village Aztec on Jul 2, 2010 19:46:27 GMT -8
We put more guys in the NFL as a D2 team. We tied ND for 7 one year. That was my point. We had to have coached them up, or Don could find talent. When he went to St. Louis he went though a ton of guys. Since he came from D2 he knew where the talent was at that level. He picked up a kid from Long Beach and made him a great player. He took an old QB and turned him into a winner.
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Post by robthevol on Jul 3, 2010 10:22:29 GMT -8
No one is trying to marginalize Coryell in reference to the programs he beat. But it was certainly a different era.
I often wondered how Coryell would have handled the transition from PCAA to the WAC. Recruiting changed (85-30), academics changed, more away games, and, of course, the WAC turned out to be a lot stronger than most SDSU fans realized.
I would like to have had Coryell coach SDSU for the first few years in the WAC as I'm sure he would have had solutions to this. And remember, he left SDSU after a brief support tussle with SDSU administration. He would have done well but I didn't see any 11-0 and 10-1 seasons at this time even with Coryell.
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Post by azdick on Jul 3, 2010 14:08:12 GMT -8
We should be so lucky to repeat that success under current conditions! AzWm If we were playing TIJUANA TECH today, we'd have an even better record now than we did then. Actually, JYP, it was Mexico Polytechnical.  |
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Post by Bob Forsythe on Jul 3, 2010 16:51:38 GMT -8
No one is trying to marginalize Coryell in reference to the programs he beat. But it was certainly a different era. I often wondered how Coryell would have handled the transition from PCAA to the WAC. Recruiting changed (85-30), academics changed, more away games, and, of course, the WAC turned out to be a lot stronger than most SDSU fans realized. Ernie Zampezi has stated often that there was no way SDSU could have competed in the Smack-10 in those days because the team had no real depth. I think we underestimated the WAC because we saw it as just a little better than the PCAA and didn't recognize that ASU's success had caused the other schools to upgrade their programs while figured we were king of the roost because we were beating up on PCAA teams and doing an Aztec Ambush here and there with schools like Florida State. During those days we also never played less than 6 homes game and quite often 7 home games and when we traveled, it really wasn't all that far and most certainly wasn't at altitude. =Bob |
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Post by justafan on Jul 3, 2010 18:22:54 GMT -8
Yeah.
My bad.
You guys are right.
He probably would have f****d it up too.
Thanks for setting me straight.
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Post by azdick on Jul 5, 2010 10:59:35 GMT -8
Actually, JYP, it was Mexico Polytechnical. But it was actually Tijuana Tech back then. Not to get "Technical", but, www.sandiego.com/sports/one-step-closer-for-don-coryellThe Aztecs opened the 1966 season by whipping under-matched Mexico Polytechnic 45-0. However, Polytechnic would not prepare the Aztecs for their next opponent, Weber State, who, at the time, was a powerhouse and had Lee White at fullback (who would later be drafted by the Chargers). Arguably, this game marks the true beginning of the Air Coryell offense. Horn recalls the Weber State game. “I remember getting tackled after I threw a pass at the end of the first quarter and we were down, I believe, 20-0,” he says. “We hung in there until halftime, and then we totally threw our game plan out and made up a new one for the second half. We implemented the shotgun. The spread formation is what they call it today, and we started throwing on virtually every down.” I remember it well, laughing all the way, Coach Coryell saying, "Theeth guyths from Mexico Poly are real tougheeths." BYW, no slam on Coach, he played the same against all comers, good or bad and kept us all entertained, a far cry from the last 25 years. When will the Claude Gilbert curse be lifted? |
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Post by retiredaztec on Jul 5, 2010 11:17:47 GMT -8
We put more guys in the NFL as a D2 team. We tied ND for 7 one year. That was my point. We had to have coached them up, or Don could find talent. When he went to St. Louis he went though a ton of guys. Since he came from D2 he knew where the talent was at that level. He picked up a kid from Long Beach and made him a great player. He took an old QB and turned him into a winner. Another piece of the Coryell/Gilbert success puzzle were the transfers from big time schools that felt they could do better under both Coaches at State. Not a HUGE number of transfers but the ones who transferred had an impact on the teams they played on. Now that I think about it, it's kinda like these players were thinking, "if I handn't come to this school, I might of gone to State, so why not go there now?" I think that was the reputation this school had, a kind of failsafe to the NFL under two excellent head coaches. Oh the days! |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 5, 2010 11:36:46 GMT -8
We put more guys in the NFL as a D2 team. We tied ND for 7 one year. That was my point. We had to have coached them up, or Don could find talent. When he went to St. Louis he went though a ton of guys. Since he came from D2 he knew where the talent was at that level. He picked up a kid from Long Beach and made him a great player. He took an old QB and turned him into a winner. Another piece of the Coryell/Gilbert success puzzle were the transfers from big time schools that felt they could do better under both Coaches at State. Not a HUGE number of transfers but the ones who transferred had an impact on the teams they played on. Now that I think about it, it's kinda like these players were thinking, "if I handn't come to this school, I might of gone to State, so why not go there now?" I think that was the reputation this school had, a kind of failsafe to the NFL under two excellent head coaches. Oh the days!Among the reasons I was glad to see Craft go was the almost complete absence of transfers during his tenure. Yeah, Adam Hall had a great year for Tom but it was Ted who brought him to SDSU. Other than Osgood, I can't think of any transfers of worth that Craft brought in. But despite all his contacts within the coaching fraternity, how many transfers of note did Chuck bring in? Not even one that I can think of. Here's hoping that Brady sees transfers like I do. That would be that like free agents in the NFL, this isn't basketball so you can't build your roster around them but you should be able to fill a major need or two by keeping your eyes open for them. Think Dan McGwire. |
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Post by Village Aztec on Jul 5, 2010 13:23:49 GMT -8
I was watching a practice at Aztec Bowl and Don asked me to leave. He said I could be a relative of a player on a team he would be playing. I was honored that he was so nice. Weber State was a problem team. I understand we found someone filming our practices from them on the roof of Perterson Gym.
That teams coach was teaching combat style training. Don hated Weber State.
Can any one else add to this?
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