So, listening to ‘The Herd’ this am I heard that Urban Meyer after beating AL with OR up next took the Buckeye Team’s front 7 to Weightwatchers to eat the right foods & get leaner & meaner because the Ducks were up next. They each lost 5 – 11 pounds. They “thought” they were leaner, meaner, faster & that they could match-up with the Ducks, especially in the 2nd half.
Did they, really? Doesn’t matter. They THOUGHT they were & that’s what counts.
For 25 years I got up at 5:00 AM to get ready for school & get the weightroom open so the team could come in and lift before school started. Even at one school got the cook to feed the team a special breakfast. I did this for two reasons: 1. To help those kids get bigger, faster, stronger. But more importantly 2. To build into their psyche that they were doing something that the opponents weren’t. I did it to give us an edge. And it did. And we did it year round. The only ‘vacation’ we took was over Christmas & New Years. The rest of the time we were in the weightroom working out. The perception became [in 4 different schools] if you were in town, you needed to be in the weightroom. If you weren’t, your spot on the team would go to someone who was and you wound up on the bench. Every school day. Every vacation day. Every snow day. You needed to be in the weightroom.

Same ‘Perception’ for the Buckeyes. The Bucks were not in class during that time either so they could spend more time at the facility that the Ducks. The Buckeyes were going to weight watchers, making an unheard of sacrifice to get better prepared. The Ducks weren’t. As we found out, some of them were smoking dope getting ready for the game. That’s a cheap shot but you get the picture: Oregon says it doesn’t matter that they lost their most productive receiver because the ‘system’ is greater than the players in it. OSU gains the perception that they can not only match up to the Duck system, they can surmount it. They could even turn the ball over 4 times & still win by 22 points. That’s conviction.

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The other thing I heard on The Herd in the past couple days is that the spread scheme that OR runs has it's roots in the fact that it can take players of lesser abilities and get them on an even playing field. Well . . . that's the same thing that the EQualizer does with even players of lesser skills. Think about it. In college you can go out an recruit players that 'fit' into your system. Can't do that in the average high school in America which BTW has an enrollment less than 750 half of whom are girls. That means in your average high school there are half a dozen boys that halve 3 star or better talent. And then they might now even go out for football. Perhaps they see themselves as a baseball player, basketball player, soccer player, etc. What do you have left: Average kids. IN the spread offense you have to have someone to throw the ball & someone who can catch the ball. That's not always going to be the case.

At one school I had a QB who I would tell “put the ball on the upfield shoulder of the Rer which he would do & we would watch it bounce off the Rer’s shoulder pads and into the waiting arms of a defender. Not only do you have to have a thrower – you have to have a catcher. There were years we had kids who could catch the ball but no one who could chuck it to them.

And then they are in the shotgun, short punt, or pistol formation. Now you have to find a player who can consistently snap the ball [which the QB has to catch] & be a good blocker for the blitzers up the gut or A gaps. How many times have you seen not only college teams, but also the pros, get inside the 5 yard line & either not be able to score or have a bad snap over the QB’s head negate a scoring opportunity, especially at a crucial part of the game.

I have always contended that OR does not have a plan B for when they get stuffed on the LOS. They will not go double tightend, fullback & pound the ball over the goal line. It happened to them on 4^th down on the 1 yard line. They got stuffed.

For these reason & more is why I created the Equalizer. It takes average kids & puts them into position to be successful against teams of greater talent. You see, talent has a way of evening out. You take your good players 7 pit them against their good players in order to cancel them out. Your three against their three. Then we get to play against the other 8-12 kids. I have always believed that we can get into the weightroom and condition to make our 8-12 play better than your 8-12 in a simple system, both offensively & defensively.

Simple, not necessarily easy but simple.