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.