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Today’s #CoachesCorner is courtesy of from former James Madison (FCS – VA) head coach and college coaching veteran Mickey Matthews. Coach Matthews is a three-time National Coach of the Year who helped two programs win national championships. As head coach at James Madison, Matthews won the 2004 FCS National Championship. In 15 seasons as head coach at JMU, Matthews’ teams won 109 games. After serving as defensive coordinator at the FBS level for two seasons, Matthews most recently coached linebackers for the Dallas Renegades of the XFL.
I have advised many young head coaches about the decisions one makes at the conclusion of lopsided games. There is a great chance you will be on the other sideline before your career ends.
Regardless of the participants , things can get out of hand quickly. Be smart and above all else always show some class. For whatever the reason, an old tradition is quickly fading from memory.
Taking a knee at the conclusion of games has gone out of style. Memories of Joe Pisarcik (the Giants quarterback known for fumbling a handoff attempt against the Eagles that was scooped up by Herm Edwards and taken for the game winning score forever known as "The Miracle at the Meadowlands" by the Philly faithful) have vanished. Offensive coordinators, and perhaps some ambitious head coaches at times, insist on piling on stats when the game has already been decided. In my opinion, that is rarely, if ever, a good thing.
Early in my career I was the secondary coach at UTEP. We played the University of Washington in Seattle and found ourselves down 48-0 with nine or ten minutes remaining. The great, and classy Don James handed the ball off to his third string fullback for the remainder of the game. His team had gotten plenty of work and he found no reason to embarrass our kids. A coach of absolute class is how Don James operated, and that's how he is remembered to this day.
That being said, my favorite story about this particular situation is one I have heard Lou Holtz tell a number of times. While the head coach at William and Mary facing off against Bobby Bowden at West Virginia, Lou felt Bowden scored a meaningless touchdown on the Tribe late in the game. Coach Holtz's demeanor at the post game hand shake was anything but cordial.
As Lou tells the story, after voicing his displeasure with Bowden's late-game approach, Bowden shared, "Lou you are a heck of a young coach. Your kids line up well, they play hard, well drilled...but I want to give one piece of advice. You coach your team and I'll coach mine."
Coach Holtz later shared that he felt like a fool and never complained about a situation like that again.
My advice is simple. Always show class, but as I used to tell my staff - if we can't stop them, or if they expose, or exploit, a problem in our coaching, we need to recruit better and coach better.
It is our problem, not theirs!