Friday Night Lights Week 7 and 8

I didn't post last week about Cal's football because I was just so frustrated. I keep going back and forth on this. Last you saw, Cal had run back a kickoff for a touchdown. Well, later that week, the coach told him he got "Lucky" because he didn't follow the wedge properly. I couldn't believe it...

The next game they won 33-0. Cal had 3 rushes and 1 reception. He was barely in the game. But nobody complains when the team is winning. They beat the 9th ranked team in the state and everyone was giddy.

So the next week they lose to a team that is probably even with them in talent. If they played their A game, then they should have won. But they got it handed to them, which is fine. Now the coach tried getting the ball to Cal a little more in the 4th quarter, when they were down 18-0. He hadn't played the whole game, and now they were throwing to him or handing him the ball in an effort to get a "big play" to spark the offense. It just drives me crazy when they don't play him the whole game and then they are up against the wall so they throw him in to try to make a big play all by himself. I don't know... I would just rather put your playmaker in the beginning of the game to get the momentum swinging in your favor.

But an interesting thing happened. The father of the starting tailback talked to me at halftime. He said he just doesn't understand why the coach doesn't play Cal more. He said "don't get me wrong, Troy (his son) is good, but your son has so much more speed. If he was in on some of those plays in the first half, he would have scored." (They were able to catch Troy when holes broke open). He went on to say "I think the coach must have just forgot how good Cal was last year before he broke his leg. He made several big plays and was keeping us in that game before he went out."

I of course, complimented him on his son's work and accomplishments this year and said I didn't really know why the coach isn't playing Cal. I told him that the best I can figure is that the coach is trying to prove something. What, I don't know. He won't start him, but does throw him in there on 3rd and long and then expects him to get the 10 or 15 yards for a first down. And he does sometimes, but when he doesn't, it makes it worse that that was his only chance to prove he could do it. And when he does get the first down, he pulls him back out and puts Troy back in.

The conversation with Troy's dad did make me feel that I wasn't the overzealous dad that is the only person on the planet that thinks his kid should get more playing time. And I thanked Troy's dad for the kind words.

So, I decided to call the coach again. And much like I am in poker, I tried to be diplomatic about it but still get what I wanted out of him. At first, I talked to him about the procedures to get game film to colleges we are thinking of visiting. Then I asked him again how is Cal's attitude and work ethic. He said it has been great and he is pleased with Cal stepping in when they ask him to. I asked him what things I could work on with Cal to improve his chances of getting back to starting -since this is the first time ever he has not been the starting tailback and big playmaker for his team (<---and I used those words with the coach). I asked if he has picked up the schemes any better (this was his excuse after 3 weeks in the season on why he wasn't getting much playing time -that he didn't know the schemes well enough).

He said he does have the schemes down, but "to be quite honest, he was hurt during the first two weeks of the season. And then he fumbled in 4 of the first 5 games. That really hurt his playing time. I think he has that all worked out now. I would say just keep working hard and make sure to protect the football. He also has a tendency to run to east and west. He probably outran everyone at younger ages, but now he can't race all the way down the line and then turn up the field; he needs to get north and south sooner. "

The first one threw me off, because he was hurt during the summer,but not by the start of the first game. He was 100% ready by then. But the rest was fairly valid. I could argue that the fumbling was not critical and a couple of times were on the QB, but he was involved in them so I didn't. I didn't argue with him at all, but rather said I will continue helping Cal improve and if there is anything else he can tell me, then that would really help. He didn't have anything else, but did say they expect more from him next year, especially because they are losing several Seniors on defense.

I told Cal about the conversation, and had a long talk about his speed and running north and south more.

Cal went to practice the next day, and they bumped him up to starting tailback. I asked Cal why, and he said he didn't know. They just ran him with the first team and told him he will be starting this week.
How 'bout them apples? Weird.

I guess we will know more tonight. The prediction is for more rain (it has been raining for 24 hours) and 54degrees. That's a high probability for fumbles, folks. Tune in next week to see or you can click here anytime Saturday or later.