August 17, 2017
VELVET VOICES?
Josh Ward, who allegedly graduated from Denham Springs HS, will call play –by-play for Denham Springs HS Football this fall. Showing that budget restrictions were very tight for the color commentary position, Jon Fine will assume this role
Broadcasts will air on Family Radio-91.9 FM-Baton Rouge, starting at 6:00 pm Friday nights with Sport-n-Center Jackets Warmup. All broadcasts can also be heard on the Internet at JonFineProductions.com (click Listen Live on the Denham Springs Football PBP page). The first broadcast is Friday, September 1, as the Jackets play host to Hammond High School. We’ll have more information in ensuing weeks in this newsletter.
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SULPHUR FOOTBALL
Bruce Merchant and Clopha Boudreaux man the mikes, once again, as Sulphur Football returns to SportsRadio-1310-KAEZM-Lake Charles (and online at KEZMOnLine.com), as they will be broadcasting both nights of the Jamboree next Thursday, 8/24 and Friday, 8/25.
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Assistant Basketball Coach and Head Swimming Coach at Central High
Apparently Sean Payton could care less about getting a win as I wrote last week that the Saints sorely need. Speed sweeps from the four yard line on 4th and goal are not the decisions that are going to win games.
So the Saints made another rookie quarterback look like the next Joe Montana. Your welcome DeShone Kizer. Nothing new there.
Like I said last week, you have to be careful to draw many conclusions from the first preseason game. Of course, that would be boring and you don’t read this article to be bored. Here are 5 conclusions I feel comfortable making after just one preseason game.
1. Chase Daniel is going to be a quality backup for Drew Brees, and slightly better than Luke McCown. Garrett Grayson will not make the team.
2. The Saints are in as good of shape at linebacker as they have been since Super Bowl 44. Robertson, Teo, and Klein know how to play the position. None of them are Vilma, but all three are better than average which is a tremendous improvement over past years. In addition, the Saints will have good depth no matter who they decide to keep behind those three.
3. Unless Lattimore turns into Patrick Peterson in year one, and there are no indications he will, the Saints are still below average at corner. For whatever reason, Crawley, Harris, and other young cornerbacks get positive evaluations from training camp practices. Then we get in a game and they get penalty after penalty and do not make plays. All of which is a terrible sign, especially when you consider I still don’t know who the Browns receivers are and we just played them. I won’t even get into the Delvin Breaux situation. What a disaster.
4. I still think the Saints should have picked Ryan Anderson, Takk McKinley, or any other highly rated pass rusher in this draft. But, the is a sliver of hope that Kikaha will produce as well as any late first round or second round draft pick would have from this year’s draft. During his abbreviated rookie season, he was around the ball and made some plays. In his short time on the field in Cleveland, he stood out. I like his game. I doubt he stays healthy, though.
5. The offense is going to be great. I know, not much of a limb there. Still, I believe the receiving corps is really deep. Thomas and Snead are great. Ginn will make Devery Henderson type plays. Coleman is ready. Whether the Saints keep Lewis, Fuller, or both, that is an excellent group of receivers.
Kamara will fulfill the Bush, Sproles role. I still think the Saints would have been better boosting the defense instead of getting Adrian Peterson, but even without playing a down, I guarantee he is going to bring a fascinatingly new aspect to the offense.
The Saints drunkenly wandered into the perfect first round draft pick considering Armstead’s injury issues. I haven’t seen Ramczyk play a down, but I know he is going to be fine based off the reports from practice and my belief in the offensive magic of Sean Payton.
This week I am just going to sit back and enjoy the game when the offense is on the field. Meanwhile, I am going to zero in on Sheldon Rankins. Maybe he has the ability to push a pocket in a way that overcomes a weak secondary despite draft pick after draft pick attempting to improve the position.
HEY REF
I must apologize for last week’s column as I did say that I’d be answering questions from the three part report I published in the weeks prior to last week. First thing on my list is to say that I am very upset with those of you out there that love to criticize officials and coaches but have never been in either one of our shoes. The greatest rules experts are those sitting in the stands week after week and the only knowledge of rules they have is to repeat what an announcer or commentator had to say in certain situations.
If I had just a dime for every idiot shouting at me and yelling that I don’t know the rules I’d never have to worry about paying my bills. The sad fact is 90% of those bleacher gurus can’t spell rule much less know any of them. Here’s one of my favorite memories; one night I had a fan jumping up and down before the end of the first half that I blew a call and never shut his mouth. As we made our way to get a drink at half time he came too close for my liking but I did my best to ignore him but he just kept on and on.
I just allowed him to finish and when he did I asked him to explain the rule he “knew” and he went on about how the SEC officials enforcement was completely different than what I’d just done on this particular Friday night. The people around us seemed to stop talking, got very quiet and waited to hear what I’d tell Mr. Rulebook. After he explained the situation I told him “You know you are 1,000% correct and the SEC refs did it right and I have to hand it to you, you are right”.
He kinda had a little smirk on his face as I continued “But you do realize this is FRIDAY NIGHT and NOT SATURDAY AFTERNNON? Tonight we don’t award a first down in that situation; we just mark off the yardage and repeat the down. But again you know that, huh? You must since you’ve studied the differences between high school rules versus collegiate rules, right”? I never heard a peep from him the rest of the night in fact I looked for him as we changed sides between the 3rd and fourth quarter but Mr. Rulebook wasn’t sitting in his same seat so I don’t know where he went.
Question one; what do you think it’ll take to get better officials? To be honest I must say that question’s answer is far too long for this space but I’d start by recruiting those that played the game first and above all else. I’ve seen tons of kids that will never see an NCAA field and those are the ones if they love the game and want to be involved in getting a completely new perspective on the game then they should give officiating at least three years. Those three years will tell them if they’re cut out to work in stripes. Any less and they’re missing the boat so to speak. And many of them will be physically able to handle the stress so that’s where I’d start.
Question two; do you favor paying refs more? I’ll be very frank and say a big HELL NO! The recent threat of a strike by refs if they didn’t get a raise was not handled right. When I started one of the first things I was told was that if I was on the field to get rich then I’d just made the biggest mistake of my life. I think just about everyone has something they love doing and don’t consider the costs involved. We call them hobbies and any payments for my time doing a hobby is something I’d never consider. Many love to fish and I count myself as one of those that do so if I ever considered the time I invested along with the money for baits, reels, yearly licenses, boat registrations, gas, oil and so on then I’d probably never get back on the water. And the same applies to officiating football.
Question three; what do coaches really expect from y’all and do they expect too much or too little? I’m not a coach but (I’ve got to let everyone know a coach asked this question) I think that what they want and what they expect are individuals that will work at their craft as hard as a coach does and as hard as his players do all week and not just for a few minutes on a given Friday night. And not only they but so do officials get pissed when a crew member just kinda sleep walks for the entire game. I’m going to get a lot of heat for this secret but I had a guy come out for a varsity game and before our pre-game conference he says “I’m going out after the game so y’all hold them flags in your pocket so we’re not out here all night”. If ever I had the power to send him on his way and not have him in my crew then I’d have sent him packing and I’d work shorthanded that night. And I know coaches and so do officials despise an official that doesn’t WORK the game and it’s a huge concern for coaches and a handicap for the crew that night. I came up with my mentors telling me WE’RE HERE TO WORK the game, if you want to watch then go buy a ticket.
Question four; are officials as competitive as the teams? It would be nice to just say “yes” and move on but therein lays a huge problem. Here’s where I differ with these new age officials, one year we had a change in the way the test would be given and there was a complete new set of questions to study. As is custom for some of us as a small group we meet to go over answers we’d come up for the 300 or so questions on that year’s study guide. It just so happened that a veteran official had worked on getting all the answers and put them in a guide he handed out to our study group of ten officials. I noticed one young official wasn’t there and the veteran official said not to give him the answers. Well, I made a copy for the young member to study before our next study session. At our next study session the more seasoned official saw the new guy with a copy but waited until we were done and asked each veteran guy who’d given “the kid” the answers. To which I said “every member needs to be sure of all the rules and they should be given the tools they need to become better officials”. To this day that official refuses to talk to me or work any level of game with me. I don’t mind, I feel that given the right tools to all of the members in our association can only make our association better.
Question five; what’s your take on the younger coaches versus the older ones? The newer guys can’t handle the pressure. I know there’s a tremendous weight on their shoulders to produce a winning program and I do feel for these guys. But society has change to where everything is a competition. Just look at TV. All you see is competitions and shows like survivor or these shows where you better cook a good dish or you’re eliminated. My DVD burner gets a huge workout as I refuse to watch stupid crap that they televise and call it entertainment. Seeing someone told they aren’t good enough for this or that just ain’t my cup of tea. The “more seasoned coaches” as we call ‘em are almost gone and doing something other than coaching or retired. I miss them because when we’d not been in the right place at the right time it was common for that official and coach to speak like civilized human beings. We’d both understand that we missed a call but those elder coaches knew we’d be working harder to make sure it doesn’t happen again, well at least for the remainder that night. Not today, one of these newbies came unglued when his guy caught a pass close to the sideline and instead of stepping out of bounds he hesitated and stepped BACKWARDS then out of bounds. So, I came in with a huge “CLOCK IS RUNNING” motion and yelled “clock is running”. The call was a simple one but I had to make sure that he knew the status of the clock because he was 3 points down and only had one time out left. The clock had to stay moving since his player’s FORWARD PROGRESS ENDED INBOUNDS when he turned around then moved backwards and out of bounds. A veteran coach would’ve made sure his guy continued up the field and didn’t stop and run backwards two steps and out.
I’ll end it there and answer the questions about working for the LHSAA and I’ll ask anyone that has a question to send it in and we’ll get it out in next week’s edition.
Till next week…
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