Weekend Rusher (Sub-State)

I'm a hoops guy, so get through this with me, then we'll talk football, which is entirely appropriate right now, seems how sub-state is Friday.

I just started reading Bill Simmons' The Book of Basketball. Simmons, a.k.a. The Sports Guy, is a rabid Boston sports fan turned newspaper writer turned blogger/bartender turned author/podcaster/columnist for ESPN.com, while always remaining a Boston sports fan. He was ahead of the curve with Internet sportswriting; back when the papers were still twiddling their thumbs over what to do about the Internet, Simmons was developing a national online readership with his unorthodox, tangential writing style from the first-person perspective of a fan. He had unlimited space to write every thought which came to mind, and they were all good. Now he's banking per year probably 100 times as much money as any newspaper or wire lemming in the land. (Too harsh?)

Anyway, free promo by me for Simmons' book. I bought it last night and I can't stop reading it. Why? Simmons bases his writing on firsthand experience, unofficial conversations and interviews and dogged historical research. Never in any of his columns or books does he use "quotes". Simmons unabashedly dogs on the base, unimaginative, recycled sports journalism of our time, a spinning and re-spinning of cookie-cutter, made-for-tv, rehearsed and repeated press conference gibberish which has become utterly uninteresting and ineffective at selling newspapers.

Stepping down from Simmons' soapbox, I'll switch gears to my point, while continuing to use some of his material from The Book.

He's writing a history of the NBA with this question in mind: What makes teams great and who is the greatest?

I ran across this quote, which Simmons took from Second Wind. It comes from Bill Russell, 10-time NBA champion and in Simmons' regard a better player than Wilt Chamberlain. He argues this point to the tee, and it's very convincing.

"It's harder to keep a championship than to win one.... you've already done it, so you can't rely on the same drive that makes people climb mountains for the first time; winning isn't new anymore. Also, there's a temptation to believe that the last championship will somehow win the next one automatically. You have to keep going out there game after game."

Russell's philosophical words on the subject of winning resonated with me big-time. In my observations of the Hutchinson football program the past three seasons, the question behind every story I write is, "What allows them to keep winning?" It is a subject that could be exhausted with an endless number of pages. Simmons uses up about 700. I've read about 75 of them so far, and I can't wait until I get off work to read more, because the subject of winning is fascinating. There's a reason everyone likes a winner. It's because none of us know how to do it, even though it's all we want to do. That's why we treat like savants those who have figured it out. Riding on their bandwagon is almost as fun as doing it ourselves.

Isiah Thomas told Simmons that the secret to basketball is that it's not about basketball. Simmons didn't say this, nor did Thomas or Russell, but this is what I've gathered so far, and I'll put it in very common language: the secret to winning in any competitive team atmosphere is everyone involved being on the same page.

I bought this book on my brother's recommendation at the ideal time. Figuring out why one team is better than another is the only reason I want to write about sports. When I played, it was all about competing. Now that I'm watching, it's all about figuring why some teams compete better than others. Whenever I'm told to cut that out, I'll be entering a new field, or starting a blog and bartending like Simmons did. (That would be irresponsible.)

I'm still not sure if this matches up with what Simmons has figured out, but I wanted to review something I wrote about Hutch in the Rusher leading up to their Week 4 Derby match-up. Hutch has somehow won five consecutive state titles and 22 consecutive state playoff games. It's made my job umpteen times more intriguing trying to figure out how that past three years.

From my observation of area teams, I would draw a large distinction between coaches who expect a win and those who can execute a win. Those coaches, who through their instruction and adjustments are able to execute wins, take especial satisfaction in the process of winning. They can taste the win early in the process of winning before it even happens, before the game begins, a week before it starts even.

I attended a Hutchinson practice last November during the week leading up to the state title game against St. Thomas Aquinas. Without even broaching the topic of how the game might turn out with Dreiling or any coach on staff (in fact, I never even asked such a question, talk about presumptuous), I knew Hutch was going to win the game against Aquinas going away. There was just a sense among the players and coaches that they were about to put on the finishing touches to another championship season. They had watched Aquinas' tape, broken it down, created a game plan and taught the plan to the players, and everyone just seemed okay with it.

They actually knew how the game should carry out; it was just a matter of making it happen. Now, this is a key point. Only if the game plan is formed and taught in detail and reviewed for mistakes exhaustively can a team truly feel like it's just a matter of making it happen. No short cuts allowed.

This feeling in a team is exhibited in its actions several ways, and none of them have anything to do with trash talking. Composed, focused answers to questions (coaches); gang tackling, followed by very physical group celebrations (players); whooping it up after a big play (players); openly discussing other teams' strengths and weaknesses in a matter-of-fact manner (coaches); driving your man onto his back (players); stepping onto the field to offer a referee or player an earful (coaches) -- on Friday nights these are signs of swagger, which by my definition is the continuous manifestation of the act of winning before, during and after the win occurs.

Carroll at Hutch this Friday will be the best football match-up I have covered in my three years on this job. Why, though? In the past three postseasons, 2007-9, Hutch has outscored 10 opponents by a combined score 449-127. No team has come within 21 points in the final deficit. Even then, McPherson tacked on late points in last year's sub-state match-up to lose 42-21 to Hutch.

Still, this is going to be a ballgame, for one reason. Not because Carroll is 11-0, and not because of anything which transpired in their first 10 games. I was largely unconvinced that they could hang with Hutch until their 42-6 demolition of Emporia on Friday. Any team that beats the heck out of Emporia, which was coming off wins at Salina South and at home against offensive powerhouse McPherson, will play a competitive game with Hutch. I don't think there's any doubt that this is going to be Hutch's first game since Derby in Week 4 of 2008 which remains competitive in the fourth quarter.

After watching Salina South on Friday and seeing their big, strong, athletic defense, I know Emporia had to be good in order to smash their way to a 33-27 win over them in the final week of district play in Salina. South was no slouch. Then, when they won their playoff opener 35-33 over McPherson, I had to take them very seriously. I thought McPherson was a top 3 or 4 team in the state. Emporia knocked them off.

Then Carroll whupped them. Blake Bell shredded them through the air and over firmament. Bell's ground game continues to intrigue me. Six-foot-six quarterbacks just don't run like that, yet Bell does. He can glide over open field or meet tacklers head-on for the extra two or three yards. He had over 200 yards passing and over 100 yards rushing against Emporia, continuing to score both ways, big passes downfield and short, bruising runs.

Hutch coach Randy Dreiling had a classic quote on Preps Weekly Saturday morning when I asked him how they were going to defend Bell as a dual threat. Check out his response here. (Dreiling, Carroll coach Alan Schuckman, Rick Wheeler and Brandon Clark were all on Preps Weekly last Saturday.) Dreiling essentially said he was going to give Bell all the credit in the world in hopes of not incurring his offensive wrath, as Emporia did after their assistant coach told the Emporia press that he didn't think Bell could throw downfield on them.

"When it comes time for him to put us on his shoulders, he needs to be able to do that and that's hard to say in football, but we're going to need him to make us better." That's what Schuckman told me after Week 1 leading up to the Week 2 Northwest game. Bell did it against Northwest. His second quarter that game was unreal.

Here's what I wrote about it in the Week 2 Rusher:


With 6:03 remaining in the second quarter against Northwest, Bell powered right for a five-yard score to take the lead 13-7. Carroll recovered an onside kick, which was a turning point in the game, taking the vigor out of Northwest's defensive play for the remainder of the half.

In another goal line situation with 5:11 remaining, Bell rolled out right after a fake handoff and lobbed a touchdown pass off his back foot to tight end John Mies. He put it in his bread basket.

After hitting every hand on the offense on the sideline between series, Bell took the field and found Brandon Weber up the sideline, airing it out 26 yards. The Carroll sideline was whooping it up after that with 2:06 remaining.

Just 31 seconds later, Northwest turned the ball over. Bell scampered for a big run, then Blake Rollins did the same. Two plays, and another score. Carroll led 32-7, and the game looked like it might be a runaway.


More importantly, he's done it when it really counted. Bell accounted for 14 touchdowns in Carroll's final district game at Liberal and their first-round game against Newton. Then he made swiss cheese of Emporia.

But Carroll is somehow better than last year, and it has nothing to do with Bell's stats, which are completely ridiculous by the way. Carroll has a shot at Hutch because their defense proved themselves against a physical, run-first, power football team on Friday, allowing just six points to Emporia. Very Hutch-like, if I may say so myself. Hutch-like, because the Salthawk first-team defense has allowed on average 7 points per game, playing two and half to three quarters before the JV rotates in.

What I just said about Carroll being better than last season and it not having anything to do with Bell's stats, that's true. The truth that is behind that statement also applies to Hutch's success over the years.

I've written this in the Rusher before: Dreiling and his staff put their best players on defense. Why? Because you can't win of you can't stop the other team. Ask Rockhurst. (By the way, that's my last Rockhurst reference in this year's Rusher. They lost their state quarterfinal to Blue Springs 23-21 on Friday. The Rock just can't win playoff games which are rematches of regular season games they won.) Hutch junior safety Ben Heeney may be the best athlete the Salthawks have. And the defensive line is freakish: Justin Goetz and Geneo Grissom are unstoppable, and unheralded Dameitrik Morris and Deji Ferreira have not allowed teams to run the ball up the middle this year. All four have incredible frames, quickness and instincts.

Carroll is somehow better than last season, and it has everything to do with the fact that the Golden Eagles returned one defensive starter from last season. Linebacker Tim Chadd, that one returning starter, and an otherwise entirely new defense completely shut Emporia down. I guess that's why Schuckman was none too concerned in the preseason about the Carroll defense, despite the losses. Mind you, the losses included an incredible defensive line and a couple veterans in the defensive secondary.

But this tops all: 6 points to Emporia, a power football team. It was the Carroll defense's first complete performance since Week 1 against Heights, and that Week 1 Heights team was not very good. (Things have changed.)

Bell accounted for 49 touchdowns in 11 games as a junior in 2008. He has accounted for 51 touchdowns through 11 games this season. He accounted for 3,576 yards passing and rushing in 11 games last season, 3,299 this season.

Carroll also only had two returning offensive starters. After going mostly to Joe Brown, Nick Johansen and Nick Seiler last season, they're spreading the ball around. They have seven wideouts with 180 or more receiving yards, and not one of them has more than 656 (Tyler Nance). They also don't have a 1,000-yard rusher; in fact, they're not even close. Bell tops all at 801 yards. Blake Rollins has 722 rushing yards, Brandon Weber 484. Four other guys have 10 or more carries.

This is a balanced offense, which brings me back to hoops and Simmons' book before I switch back over to Hutch.

Simmons refuses to allow the conversation over who is the best in NBA history to become a stats war. Isiah Thomas, much ridiculed for his poor management decisions since ending his playing days and entering the front office, is a wise man when it comes to describing how teams win:

"If we win this," he said before the Detroit Pistons won their first NBA title in 1989, "we'll be the first team in history to win it without a single player averaging 20 points. First team. Ever. We got 12 guys who are totally committed to winning."

It's ironic how research shows that the lack of outrageous statistics is a mark of a great athletic teams. Granted, Bell's stats are incredible, but no one else's are. Rather, his stats show that he is very Russell-like, getting everyone involved.

The same is the case at Hutch, believe it or not. It's not the Josh Smith Show like it was the Jake Sharp Show at Salina Central (though it worked for Central, didn't it?). Smith at fullback has 1,517 rushing yards this season. Deveon Dinwiddie has 1,320 rushing yards coming out of the slot in the triple option. Backup fullback DeShawn Dinwiddie has 526 rushing yards. Five other rushers have netted at least 100 rushing yards. Nine different backs have broken for runs of 29 yards or more.

Variety is effective over time, not because it's variety, but because everyone is getting involved. Team chemistry doesn't have to be preached when the game plan and execution demonstrate it.

The platoon system, relatively new to high school football (in the old days you kept your best players on the field all game long, period), also plays into this. Instead of playing 11 to 15 guys on a roster of 40 to 50, you're playing 22 to 25. More kids are involved, more kids are happy, more parents are happy, which means chemistry is better.

In order to spread the ball around, a team has to have a lot of good players. In order to have a lot of good players, a program has to develop them over time. In order to develop lots of players over time, a program has to have support and stability, which centers around coaching.

Which leads me to the final chapter of this article. Schuckman has had the same coordinators for 14 of his 15 seasons, Jim Nance on defense and Dustin Trail on offense. Everyone on the team knows what they expect.

Dreiling and his defensive coordinator Scott Yantes came over together from Salina South to Hutchinson 13 years ago. Defensive secondary coach Bo Frondorf has been at Hutch for 11 seasons. Four other coaches on staff are former head coaches. There is stability and knowledge galore on the staff.

Shuckman is 134-39 in 15 seasons with a 77.5 winning percentage at Carroll. Dreiling is 122-27 in 13 seasons with a 81.9 winning percentage at Hutch.

Very similar numbers.

The very different number? Well, that one is kind of obvious. And this game Friday will be one of those precious instances in sports in which the challenger will have to beat the best at the top of their game in order to get a shot at their first state title.

Tee it up.

More to come on Class 6A, 4A and 3A in tomorrow's extended Rusher.