people are greatly
roused up over the defeats
coaching is main thing

Dear sir:

Mr. George Huff handed me your letter to him of December 27th and requested me to answer for him. Illinois has secured coaches for 1901 but Michigan has not yet selected hers, although we shall do so very soon.

We won the Western Football Championship for several years, namely 93, 94 and 95. Since then, however, we have won the championship but once, namely in ’98. This has been largely due, I think, to unsatisfactory coaching, though I believe our failure this year was mostly due to the fact that we have a green team, as we had only three old men back.

Our people are greatly roused up over the defeats of the past two years, and a great effort will be made. Alumni everywhere have promised to cooperate, and as we will have three-fourths of the old men back the outlook is splendid. Coaching is the main thing bothering us now.

Would you care to coach at Ann Arbor? What terms? Do you expect to come east soon? If so, could you stop and talk the matter over with us?

If you receive this before you start east, will you please wire me at once whether or not you care to consider the matter and if so, whether you can talk the matter over.

Yours truly,

Chas. Baird

Charles Baird, Athletic Director of the University of Michigan to Fielding H. Yost on January 5, 1901 as reproduced in the book, Stagg vs. Yost : the birth of cutthroat football by John Kryk. Lanham, Maryland, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2015.

Mr. Kryk writes, “Yost would be the first UM football coach who wasn’t either a former star player at Princeton or Yale or a UM grad. In fact, in 1901, Yost would be the only coach among the seven schools good at football at the time who hadn’t learned his craft at one of the Big Four universities in the East. That Michigan would hire this gregarious nomad with personal and educational pedigrees unlikely to impress Western athletic men, let alone any easterners, spoke to the heights of Yost’s coaching overachievements thus far. Such heights were nothing compared to those he was about to reach at Michigan.”

In a caption to a photograph of Mr. Yost, Kryk write, “Fielding H. Yost had more personality than any man I have ever met,” according to Ring Lardner.”

And that’s good enough for me.

it’s not the playbook
but it’s the way that you play
that’s most important

“It’s not the playbook that’s the most important thing for these guys to come in and learn,” Glenn said this week. “It’s the style of play that we have — and that’s easy to learn because once you see it and once we show it to them, they understand, listen, this is how we play. We can shrink the playbook down as much as we want, but it’s the way that you play that’s the most important.”

Lions’ defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn as quoted in the article, Why Lions’ shootout win over Packers ranks among Dan Campbell’s most special by Colton Pouncy Dec 6, 2024, in The Athletic (Click here for PDF for those who don’t have access).

Mr. Pouncy continues:

Each one has its own special place in the hearts of those who helped make it happen. Few are as memorable as this one will be for the group that accomplished.

“This is sweet,” said Campbell, pushing all the right buttons for the 12-1 Lions. “I told the team, ‘This will be one of those you never forget.’”

Sure I see the defense falling away piece by piece.

But the new pieces fit into the puzzle in a way that leaves me puzzled.

Back in the day, Detroit would never have pulled this off.

Something has changed.

Mr. Pouncy write, “Program win is a term typically used in college football to describe a defining moment, typically for a team on the rise. But this isn’t college and the Lions are a Super Bowl contender. And yet, this had the feeling of one. Perhaps organizational win is a better term. It took the front office, coaching staff and players on the field to get it done.”

While I remember a Lions coach once asking publicly, what does a guy have to do to get fired around here.

That was Daryl Rodgers and he went 18-40 over 4 years before being fired.

In those four years, his teams won four more games than the Lions have won this year alone … so far.

Just along for the ride … but really enjoying it as long as it lasts.

when really matter …
really matter now but when
they really matter

So as long as we’re being conscious about learning and getting these things in long term development then all these games will help us pay dividends and help us win those games later when they really matter. They really matter now, but when they really really matter.

Michigan Head Basketball Coach Dusty May on where his team is after 2 games as quoted in Michigan basketball, Dusty May ‘not going to panic’ over early turnover troubles by Tony Garcia in the Detroit Free Press.

Win those games later when things really matter.

They really matter now, but when they really really matter.

I do, goofy to say, know what he means.

But like they say in baseball, a win in April counts as much as a win in September.

They really matter in April, but they really really matter in September.

when it’s not your day
and you can still win, that’s a …
sign of a good team

“For me I’m not going to tell him anything because I don’t feel like this is, oh, man, what are you doing? These weren’t ill-advised throws. It wasn’t our day. When it’s not your day and you can still win, that’s a sign of a good team.”

Detroit Lions Head Coach on the 5 interception performance of Lions Quarterback Jerod Goff in a game that saw Detroit score 19 second half points Houston Texans, 26-23.

“Man, that is the definition of resiliency,” Campbell said. “You guys just kept bangin’ away, right? We did whatever we had to do. And we just bought our time.”

“We get our points. Bates, that was freakin’ ginormous, alright?“

My college team is awful.

My pro team, for the first time in my life, is good.

Good good.

Lucky good.

Rather be lucky than good good.

Finding ways to win games they have no business winning.

Winning games they should win.

Going to sit on the beach of this Detroit Lions team and enjoy the warm sunshine and soft breeze as long as I can.