Full-Court Press
MY eyes played a nasty trick on me during a recent spring football practice. And for an instant, I thought I had gone back in time. UH’s spring football
has familiar ringBlame my momentary lapse on that single-back, four-wide alignment. It fooled me into thinking this was Paul Johnson's spread option, not June Jones' run-and-shoot.
OK, OK, I know the similarities end at the formation. One thrives on the run. The other runs off the pass. But the idea behind both is to keep a defense from jamming eight men into the box. I'd try to tell you what that means exactly, but I only have 13 inches left before I hit the bottom of the page.
Personally, I'm a little weary of spring practice and all the new formations coming off the pages of the playbook. If you ever had to take ballroom dancing as a child, you have an idea what football this time of year is all abut.
Oh sure, every once in a while there will be a big free-for-all during offensive and defensive line drills to spice up things. The other day, a couple of linemen emerged from one of those 30-man pileups looking like John Madden poster boys, complete with turf wedged in the face masks.
It snapped me out of my zombie state just long enough to recall that I had seen more scuffles this one spring than the three previous seasons combined. I'm not sure what that means, either, but if Jones likes it, who am I to argue?
As boring as spring practice can be, it still beats working for a living. If you want to see a real scuffle, come down to the newsroom when I announce to everyone I'm going to be spending the next two hours outside, wearing shorts and a golf shirt.
Those reporters relegated to covering the governor, the mayor, the City Council, the courts, the Bishop Estate trustees -- you know the Gods are punishing you when you're on that beat -- and the Legislature don't take too kindly to my lament. I barely make it to the door.
ACTUALLY, you can learn a few things that go beyond the Xs and Os by walking up to the people in the know. I heard a good one the other day. Now, don't quote me on this, but it seems UH has a half-million or so dollars worth of cinder waiting to be dumped on the softball field.
You remember that deal. UH built a stadium where only the umpire could see home plate. All that dirt will raise the field the necessary four feet.
Meanwhile, work on the soccer and football fields begins sometime after that. Seems they're going to level the higher field, which means a bunch of dirt has to be removed. Now, call me a Goober -- and you won't be the first -- but it seems some money might have been saved had these projects been combined.
Regardless, UH head coach June Jones has to decide whether he'll miss a spring or fall while the fields are being refurbished. It's going to take some time before the grass is greener on the inside of that fence. The other day, those unruly weeds were ankle deep.
On the bright side, the high grass cushioned the number of injuries this spring. Unfortunately, there were already many shoulder and knee surgeries performed in the off-season that left the UH coaches seeing red, as in rehab jerseys.
So much so, Jones will follow in the footsteps of former head coach Fred vonAppen and not hold a spring game for a fourth consecutive year.
That's all right by me. Things are starting to run together after nine consecutive springs. Next thing you know, I'll mistake the West Coast for the run-and-shoot and be asking Jones, "Now, about that 30-point plan."
Paul Arnett has been covering sports
for the Star-Bulletin since 1990.