Bud Grant? Not Quite...

I'll admit, I was preparing for a piss-pounding on Thursday afternoon. After we, as players and coaches, stepped off the bus -- it started to drizzle and for some reason, I felt hope. I had always played my best games in the rain and maybe, JUST MAYBE, my feeling could hopefully rub off on my guys.

"Coach R" and myself got them all kinds of fired up, giving them the pre-game speech of pre-game speeches. Some excerpts:

• "If you see a pansie light blue jersey, you hit 'em!"
• "Knock the livin' piss out of them!"

I even called one of my player an "idiot!", because he spit on my playbook. By that time, I was pretty fired up and into the game itself. Our offense was solid right away as we pushed down the field and scored right away (we play a scrimmage format -- 10 plays total, 40 yards). Our running game was pretty good, but I have a dancer as a running back (he thinks he's Barry Sanders) and again, slower than slow receivers.

We played a total of 4 series, or a total of 40 offensive and 40 defensive plays. I was extremely pleased on how our defense played (I just wish we could stick with our 1st team defense, but we have to play everybody). The opponent's offense played out of the "Maryland I-Formation." As long as we stayed home, we made some big plays.

When the dust settled ... or when the lightning started to brighten the already-overcast sky, we left the scrimmage tied at 3 touchdowns scored each. Overall, I was pleased but we need to make major strides in terms of actually knowing the plays (the 3rd and 4th offensive series were disasterous), so starting next Tuesday, I'm re-scheduling our practice sessions and we're only going to run 3 plays in different formations -- run 'em to death until they're perfect.

And of course, our major problem: nobody shows up to practice, again! Yesterday at the scrimmage, everybody was there, all 22 players. Today for our conditioning day, only 15 showed up. Heads are going to roll on Monday afternoon and some guys may sit during our next scrimmage on Monday. Extremely dissapointed.

But everything's building up to the last game of the season, when we take on those pricks from South Dakota. Man, I hope by that time we can bring the chains of Hell upon them, especially the crap they put us through the last couple of years. I'm already fired up.