Thursday, August 28, 2008

USA Today: As season opens, head coaches hand off play-calls

Link.

Excerpt:

When the college football season begins Thursday night, some prominent coaches in the game won't be calling the shots. Yes, Steve Spurrier is still wearing his visor at South Carolina, Charlie Weis is hoping to invert last year's 3-9 mark at Notre Dame, Maryland's Ralph Friedgen is praying for fewer injuries in 2008 and Jeff Tedford is still running the show at California.

But these head coaches, all known for their offensive prowess, will hand play-calling duties to assistants this season. Given the demands of the job as coach and CEO and the increased sophistication of offenses, head coaches who also call offensive or defensive plays have become an endangered species.  "It will allow me to get fresh bodies on the field and be able to look in the players' faces and see what we need to do," Weis said this month. "I'm not going to be standing there studying the call sheet and remembering every formation."

Said Tedford: "I'll still be involved in the game-planning. But it's very difficult to do it all. I'll probably call a portion of the plays. It just frees me up a little bit to do a better job of being the head coach."

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