Rockne's Roundtable

10 yrs. as a varsity assistant on an fatastically successful SoCal HS football team and 30 yrs coaching basketball. Twenty of which were as Varsity head coach at very successful programs. I have seen all kinds of coaches.

Football coaches are generally more reserved than basketball coaches. I had a football coach once ask me why basketball coaches are such screamers.I think it has to do with the pace of the game and the gym enviornment adds intensity. I have seen a few crazy football coaches and many crazy basketball coaches. Coaches who get kids, parents etc that are waiting for the crazy coaches game to finish or who might have played the crazies team say that that coach is crazy and a total loon. You hear what people say and how they react to such a person. They think the guy is out of control and a total loon. They laugh at him even if his team is well coached or successful.

To the general public a screaming coach is a matter of style and degree. If a coach is wilder than the norm (and for most people who accept screaming as part of sports the perameter are quite tolerant) then he is considered crazy.

Concerning the players, it is different. Screaming is an art, that is, one coach can scream louder, but his players will accept it because it is not personal or they still like the coach. Another coach can scream less or at a lower pitch and the players will hate him and fear making mistakes and being yelled at.

IFR is correct. Kelly didn't drop the balls, throw the inteceptions, fumble etc. But did he put a playmaker who can't judge or catch well to receive punts ? That would be his fault. Do his players make mistakes because they fear his yelling ? That would be his fault..Did he pick the wrong guy to be QB ? That would be his fault.

The bottom line here is that Kelly was past the behavior that most people feel is normal for a coach. He looked like a loon. He looked like he might kill himself on the sidelines. Again, it is a matter of degree. With veins popping out, turning from the reddest of red to almost purple, eyes bugging, spit flying and cuss words everywhere, meeting kids as they come off the field ( to an ex coach meeting the kids and sometimes not letting them off the field is the worst), Kelly was past what most people accept is normal for a coach to yell at his players on the field of sports.I wish that he would control himself. I want him to succeed, but how can a coach demand poise from his players if he doesn't display it himself