Weekend Rusher Continued

Swagger.

The media blitz over it began last Friday when "The U" followed up its season-opening win over Florida State with another victory over Georgia Tech on Thursday. When the University of Miami is winning, college football is better for it, said Jim Rome and others.

Whatever. But while I don't care for Miami or their relevance in college football, I am all for swagger.

Any team that's capable of beating any other team on any given day, I'm teling you, it's because they have swagger. Magic, Bird, Jordan, Elway, Montana, every Dallas Cowboy in history, including their coach Jimmy Johnson -- they all raised everybody else's game because they had swagger. The truly great players actually become some form of player-coaches, because they coach the boys up just the like the coaches. They raise everybody's game by radiating confidence with every movement. 

And don't confuse swagger with showboating. All these guys who rehearse end zone dances are idiots. They act like they've never been there, which is the exact opposite of the affects of swagger. People don't dance around on the field of play because they're confident. They're insecure.

This Friday's Hutchinson at Derby preps match-up will not be lacking in swagger. The head coaches of both teams have it. Even after things don't go as they planned, they still maintain that they had a plan and will develop a better one next time or just have it executed next time the way it should have been the first time. It's kind of like denial, but it's not. The result next time actually will be better, because they are capable of making adjustments. Not everyone is.

They're not arrogant or incorrigible or showboats. They're not Miami. Rather, they believe in what they're doing and their players believe in them. 

For Hutchinson, headed up by Randy Dreiling, one of two coaches to ever win five consecutive state football titles in Kansas, the results speak for themselves. Good things are happening because Dreiling put things in place a long time ago. No other team in Kansas has as experienced a coaching staff; no other town is as committed to winning; no other players are as ingrained in the system. 

Dreiling and Hutch go into every game knowing they will win if they execute, and there have been only two losses over the past four seasons. You tell me if they're being honest with themselves.

Dreiling isn't presumptuous; he's prepared and has standards. He knows how good his team is and he takes pleasure in coaching them to wins. 

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 2008 5A 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 in an intelligent, intelligible manner (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. 

Hutch didn't have it against Derby last year. The coaches in pregame seemed overconfident; the players played lackadaisical. Hutch did not have its usual focus and confidence that night, and Derby did. Hutch took the game for granted, and Derby beat them at the mental game. Derby didn't have the players Hutch had, nor had they achieved success at their level, but last year's Panthers sincerely believed they could play with Hutchinson -- they did all week, all season, long before the night they played -- despite having been made a laughing stock by Hutch at home in 2007, 41-13.

I will return to one of Hutch's games in 2007 to describe the team's usual psyche for big games, as opposed to what they brought to the table against Derby last year. 

Hutch's only big game of the season in '07 was against Goddard at home. I spent the day with the team on Thursday before that game, and many players and coaches commented to me that games like Goddard were what they are always waiting for. A challenger, a group of people willing to affront the best, a team which will be competitive no matter how good or well-prepared the champion is -- that's what every great team is jonesing for. Blowouts get boring. 

Great teams can begin to take themselves for granted, as can their fans and opponents, when every game's deficit is 20 points or more. Opponents and fans quit showing up, so maybe one week the great team does too.

Well, that Goddard game was pretty competitive, though Hutch still won 21-7 and had a late touchdown denied due to one heart of a champion owned by Logan Watkins. (Goddard's Watkins didn't care about the score when he chased down Gage McKinnis on that play and popped the ball out and through the back of the end zone for a touchback.) But the point is, Hutch still rolled, and then they really put a whooping on Goddard at sub-state, winning 55-28. Goddard was so ready for both games, but so was Hutch, and they turned out to be really fun to watch.

My point with all this: Hutch entered last season's game against Derby not viewing the Panthers as they did Goddard the year before. And in reality, '08 Derby was at least as effective a team as '07 Goddard, and certainly more explosive on offense with the ability to score points in bunches. Hutch underestimated Derby, and it showed in their preparation and execution. They weren't prepared to defend Derby's spread option, and they did not execute on offense, spilling the football all over the place.

But truth is, Derby would have hung with a Hutchinson team that had had its head screwed on straight. Derby deserves its share of credit. And I'll go back to the 2007 Hutch at Derby game to prove that point.

Hutch scored touchdowns on its first three possessions in the first quarter at Derby in '07 to go up 21-0. Josh Smith, who had stepped in as a sophomore for the injured Romero Cotton, and the o-line steamrolled them. But then Hutch ran into a familiar problem: They lost two fumbles in the second quarter and didn't score a point.

I was looking back at the '07 game story by Levi Wolters in the Wichita Eagle, and one of his paraphrases of Clark, then in his second season as head coach, is very interesting. Clark didn't see the game as a building block for a program trying to get back into state contention; he didn't see it as a gauge for progress; he legitimately thought they could win the game. Well, they tied Hutch 0-0 in the second quarter, and, hey, that was an all-out, full-sided Hutchinson football team, maybe their best ever. I remember watching and listening to Dreiling on the sideline during that quarter; he wasn't happy and he had a few things to say to his guys.

Clark had a team coming off a 1-8 season, with their one win coming against South High, and they were 1-1 with a loss to Garden City going into the '07 Hutch game, and yet he game planned, taught and coached that night thinking his team could win. That's special confidence, only because Clark proved a year later that he was right. Clark's attitude, in addition to his knowledge, is why I think he's a good coach.

I'm beating this point to death -- the mental aspect of the game starting with the head coach, then him imbuing his coaches and players with the same perspective -- because that's really why Derby won last year. Clark and his guys were ready; Dreiling and his guys were not. And, now, looking back, I'm surprised Hutch didn't take Derby more seriously in 2008 after Derby showed some promise in 2007 with a team that, let's just say, was very lacking in manpower.

Swagger, baby. Clark's got it.

I will grant this to Hutch: Yes, Derby was not competitive at 6A sub-state last fall, losing 22-3 to Junction City. And they also got pounded in district play by Heights. Those two losses certainly brought them back down to earth after an 8-0 start which included the win over Hutch. Meanwhile, Hutch went on a rampage again the remainder of their schedule, never playing another competitive game. It was what we expected from them from the start. So, yes, you're right, by all indicators, Hutch certainly looked like the much better team of the two by season's end. They were, undoubtedly.

But don't let the deeper meaning of Derby's win over Hutchinson last season wear off. Derby developed a plan, taught it to their players, they believed in it, they believed they could beat Hutch, even though no one else in Kansas had come close in three seasons, and they did it. The entire week's events, from the tape sessions the Saturday preceding the game to the actual game on Friday night, required such serious stones of Derby's coaches and players. Then, they were down all game long until scoring late off a Hutch turnover to win 30-27. It was a great, great win.

And don't think that Hutch's dominant win over Rockhurst three weeks ago followed by a 96-6 drubbing of its next two opponents has Derby, at 2-1 coming off a 28-0 win over Goddard after losing to Salina Central 20-12, thinking they can't win at home against Hutch on Friday. In fact, even though no Derby coach or player has told me this, I think they almost expect to win, as crazy as that sounds. And you know what, what those guys think should hold some weight after last season's result.

For what it's worth, this is exactly what Clark said to me on Preps Weekly radio, following the Goddard win on Friday:

"The kids are already talking about Hutch. They're getting excited. They're getting all wild. I think our kids, we're over that mental state where, 'Oh, we're playing Hutch.' I think they're excited, in fact, I know they're excited about playing Hutch. We haven't focused on them that much all summer. We've just been focusing on what we do well... 

"There's always a feeling when you're playing Hutch. They're the top team in the state year in and year out. Sometimes I think teams can get a little worried, and coaching staffs, but you know what, our kids are tough and our kids are excited and they know what happened last year, and they know we didn't even play a perfect game last year. Shoot, we fumbled the ball two times inside their 20. So, our kids are excited, our defense is excited. They're going to have a huge challenge. They're getting ready to play the best offense in the state right now."

That's what I'm talking about. Ever since talking with Clark and his defensive coordinator Joel Applebee the night after the Goddard game, I've been pumped for this Friday's match-up. These guys not only want to win; they think they can win, not only because they've done it before, but because they know they're capable of putting a plan together and they know their players will believe in it.

Look, I'm acting like this sort of confidence is rare because it is against Hutchinson. And it's one of the reasons, albeit the last one, Hutch cannot find a competitive opponent in Kansas. (All the other reasons have to do with Hutch being way better than everyone else in every facet.) No one else seems willing to go all in and challenge the Salthawks. Thank goodness Derby is.

Here's why I think the game's going to be competitive, and I'll frame each point mostly by talking about Derby's strengths because Hutch's are absolutely assumed by this writer.

The Derby defense is not huge, but that really doesn't matter in high school football. Derby has plenty of kids who are of decent size with excellent speed and quickness. Meshach Kennedy and Devin Hedgepeth in the defensive secondary stick out for their speed and quickness, and four-year starter Ian Whittit, Dillon Call and Tyson Liston have great mobility and strong bodies at linebacker. Kyle Lillard (6-2, 200) is very mobile as a defensive end, and Taylor Smith (6-1, 190) is also very active out of the defensive secondary. Derby certainly will not penetrate the line of scrimmage on defense, in fact, they will be driven backward by Hank Schmedemann and company; but they will harass Hutchinson past the line of scrimmage with active hands, trolling for strips and fumbles. Remember, Hutch's weakness has always been fumbles; even when they pound people, they usually fumble twice. Derby knows how to exacerbate this weakness of Hutch's. They'll do it again.

First-year Derby junior quarterback Tyler Harrison is still searching for his comfort zone. But when this kid finds it, he throws a hell of a ball. I mean for goodness' sakes, he's 6'4" and 200 pounds -- he looks like Blake Bell out there, in terms of his body. Derby will be lacking their incredibly effective option run from the quarterback position this season -- Jake Snodgrass was so good at that -- but Harrison is big and strong enough to keep Hutch honest on the run. I will be very interested, however, to see if Harrison can escape Hutch's defensive linemen before hitting the line of scrimmage on his runs. My instincts say, no, he won't be able to. 

Overall, though, Derby will get on a hot offensive streak at some point during this ball game. Here's why: Just over 4 minutes into the second half against Goddard last Friday, Derby's offense finally quit stalling. Derby's backup running back, Evan Oaks, who, honestly, could be a top back in the area right now, went in motion behind the Derby line at the Goddard 24-yard line. With Harrison in the shotgun, Oaks then back pedaled away from the line, now on Harrison's opposite side. Harrison hiked the ball, faked to the fullback, then ran right running the option with Oaks acting as the slot back out of his early back pedal off the line. But at the same time, Hedgepeth, the defensive back who's now rarely leaving the field playing both ways, had stepped out his position as slot receiver on the end opposite of Oaks and sprinted into the Derby backfield. Harrison, running right with Oaks, instead flipped to Hedgpeth running left for a reverse. He got around the end of the line very quickly and went 24 yards untouched for the score. It was just a beautiful play. 

Off an interception, Derby scored less than a minute and a half later, set up by a 41-yard bomb from Harrison to Hedgepeth. When Derby scores, they score a lot.

I asked Clark about the play after the game. He said a coach up in the box saw something and made a great call. 

Now, I'm going to go right at Derby fan here, because I don't think they believed me last year when I wrote in the November issue of Vype that Clark had a young assistant calling many of Derby's plays, including key scores against Salina South and Hutchinson, two of the biggest upset wins of the 2008 season. That assistant was Caleb Smith, recently removed from K-State and Garden City Community College football. Clark didn't tell me who the coach was that made the call against Goddard, but I'm betting it was Smith. Between him and Clark calling plays, Derby is going to get hot at some point on Friday.

Finally, I think this game will be close because Derby's kids truly believe, and I learned from watching Hutch that this very trite idea actually does matter. Failure comes with doubt.

Every coach in the country is trying to figure out how to get his kids to believe, because when adversity arrives on the field of play, doubt creeps into players' minds. Doubt by definition is acceptance that what you want to happen may not happen. The absence of doubt is enforcement of will. Players who truly believe enforce their will upon their opponents. Kids must believe in their game plan, their coaches and most importantly their own abilities, which includes their minds.

Both Hutch and Derby have kids whose physical abilities and minds have undergone intense, constructive preparation for years. That's why this is going to be a great game.