shells and helmets daily

we didn't tackle to the ground or cut block but in pre-season everything else was full go. Once the season starter it was a lot of running through plays at half speed and memorizing what the other team was going to try and do. Almost no hitting.

In my 3 years there we lost 4 games and played against 7 guys that went on to play in the NFL (a few of them for quite some time, including some guys from Lacrosse, WI).

John was way ahead of his time; almost everyone practices like that now. It was very attractive to me as I was coming off of a major shoulder injury and everywhere else was live contact, full pads Mon-Thursday and walk through Friday. Only guys that didn't have contact were the qb's; John had a famous quote, something along the lines of "why do the qb's avoid contact? Don't the other guys have moms that are worried about them too?"

Of course, knowing John he probably threw a few "shit, Christ" in there as well.

Hey man..tell us more

I think Coach G is one of the most fascinating coaches ever.
I would love to hear more from you on many aspects of his style.
* Did the players respect him
* Did the full contact of the games surprise the players as to the physicality of the game
* How did a 2nd or 3rd string player get to move up if there was no hitting. Especially on defense ( say if a 3rd string guy was a ferocious hitter and the starter was not)

Sorry for the follow up but man..you played for a legend,

sure

Did the players respect him

Absolutely. Everyone loved John. Not everyone liked his son Jimmy (who probably shouldn't have been on the staff, to be honest).

* Did the full contact of the games surprise the players as to the physicality of the game

Not at all. By that point in time, if you can't block and tackle you can't play. Since we were in shoulder pads and helmets in practice, we could still work combo blocks, trap blocks, etc. and we did almost everything full speed in pre-season camp.

* How did a 2nd or 3rd string player get to move up if there was no hitting. Especially on defense ( say if a 3rd string guy was a ferocious hitter and the starter was not)

This was tougher. Our 4th and 5th string guys were better than the starters at most of the schools we played (including some D2 programs in North and South Dakota) and we had numerous players (including me) that were transfers from bigger schools. Honestly, John knew where his bread was buttered and the local kids from St Cloud and the surrounding areas got the first shot, and then the seniors. There were definitely some issues and hard feelings with this, especially from kids who came in from out of state. He lost a few of his really good assistant coaches because of it, as they had recruited a lot of good out of state players and most of them sat on the bench and got really pissed.

I have to finish with one last thing--if someone was a big hitter, it showed up in practice. To me, the most overrated thing is the big knock out hit, which really isn't even good fundamentals. The real good tacklers tackle like Pete Carrol on the Seahawks teaches it and drive through the guy's outside leg while wrapping up the legs. Believe me, we had plenty of guys that could hit hard. UW LaCrosse did as well, including a guy that played MLB in the NFL for about a decade.

Many thanks

Awesome stuff

I'm trying to help with someone that you may have played w/

I work with one of your starting DE/LB - Scheck - from that era. What position did you play, etc.? I keep telling him there is a Johnnie on the ND board, and I think Scheck graduated in '97 as well.

knew Andy well

very good player; legit D1AA ILB that played D3. He and Jeremy Rohndorf were excellent players at ILB and Andy had the best memory of anyone that I had ever met--he used to get up at the nightly tape session during pre-season practices and recite the names of all the freshman that he had met since practice started. Amazing recollection.