Countdown to Football: Player #10

[BigShoop]

Sucks for JB Garris and Jamaal Jenkins...

[Jamie]

Chad Barnhardt and Marquel Blackwell were pretty decent, if I recall.

[Ricky the Bull]

Playing Days Give Coaches Credibility

By JOEY JOHNSTON The Tampa Tribune

Published: Aug 19, 2007

TAMPA - He's 28 years old and still nearly two weeks away from his initial regular-season game as Freedom High School's head football coach.

Marquel Blackwell said he knows respect must be earned.

Credibility? He had that even before walking through the door.

"Most of the kids seemed to know me," Blackwell said. "And if they didn't, their parents did. I already got a few text messages of the old NCAA Football [video game] with me on it."

Four years ago, Blackwell had completed a glittering career as the University of South Florida's quarterback. He set records, won plenty of games and captured the hearts of Bulls fans.

Now he must capture the attention of his teenage players.

"I think the guys understand I have a lot of football knowledge," Blackwell said. "But that really doesn't mean anything. What matters is your ability to get your guys to understand it, to do what you want them to do and to push them to their limits, even beyond what they think are their limits.

"That's what a coach does."

There is no template for a successful football coach. In Hillsborough County, they come in all shapes and sizes, different ages, varying temperaments and wildly fluctuating experience levels.

Very few got a shot at the NFL. Many performed in college football. And for most, they learned about the game's exhilarations and disappointments on Friday nights.

"I think it's important to tell the kids, when you make demands of them, that you're simply asking them to go through the same things you did as a player," said Sickles coach Pat O'Brien, who was named Hillsborough County's top player when he played quarterback for Hillsborough in 1980. "You've been in their shoes."

One coach can't make that precise statement.

Plant's Robert Weiner, architect of last season's 15-0 Panthers who won the Class 4A state title, never played one down of organized football.

"There's a bit of a ceiling to my coaching," Weiner said. "I can't really tell them what it feels like [to be in the huddle] because I don't know.

"I can surround myself with a great staff and do all the research and studying possible. But there's something I don't have. It has never really been a question [with players]. Does that make me less of a qualified coach?"

The answer seems obvious.

"How can anyone question the ability of Robert Weiner?" said Tampa Catholic coach Bob Henriquez, a former offensive lineman who played at Princeton. "What is coaching? You might say X's and O's are important. But I think it's more about human nature. It's about taking a group of people with disparate interests, establishing the same goal and moving them toward that goal without them really knowing it.

"I could have some playing experience that Coach Weiner might like to have. But he has something I want, too. A state championship ring."

If he chooses, Henriquez can tell his players about the last time he wore TC's green and white, the night he was asked to block a prep All-American from Hernando named Jerome Brown. "Did pretty well against him," Henriquez said.

Cambridge's Rick Shears can recount his playing days in Michigan prep football, including one night when a linebacker named Carl Banks struck him so hard, he went flying past the sideline and crash-landed on the school's asphalt track.

Armwood's Sean Callahan can describe how he was the fastest player on his team in Fairfield, Conn., running a 4.5 in the 40-yard dash while wearing full gear.

"Our players love to hear that," Callahan said. "It's the truth. But they laugh and chuckle every time."

What players really want to hear, Callahan said, is how to defeat the next opponent.

"Sometimes, players want to know if you're still fast and they want to race you," said Middleton coach Harry Hubbard, a former Mississippi Valley State running back who made it to two NFL training camps. "What glory is there in running faster than someone who is 40 years older than you? It's not about outdoing your players. It's about teaching them how to outdo the other teams."

Some head coaches are detached observers, coaching the assistants more than anything.

Not Blackwell.

Not yet, at least.

"I have a little drill I do with the quarterbacks - and I am not going to lose," Blackwell said with a laugh. "I'd never hear the end of it.

"I go hard. But I want them to go at a higher level, to work at the same pace we had at South Florida and to come together as a group. I can push them that way."

So far, so good.

"We definitely realize he [blackwell] knows what he's talking about," Freedom senior wide receiver Larry Thompson said. "I know he was a great player for USF. He's pretty young, almost our age, so sometimes it almost seems like he's one of your friends, off the field.

"On the field, it's different. He's demanding. He wants us to get better. He's been to the top, so we're listening to what he has to say."

Blackwell said he realizes the obvious advantages of making a name for himself at USF. It helped him receive a coaching opportunity. The players might respond more eagerly, at least early on.

But pretty soon, he won't be Marquel Blackwell, former USF star quarterback.

More like, Marquel Blackwell, rookie head coach.

"As a quarterback, you're used to dealing with the high highs and the low lows of the game," he said. "You're used to dealing with all the different players, getting them on the same page, being the leader. So that should help me in coaching."

"Marquel has plenty of clout," said USF receivers coach Mike Canales, who was once Blackwell's position coach. "It's great to see him doing this. He'll get that thing rolling. He knows the game."

In more ways than one.

"I can't throw the passes for them," Blackwell said. "My time [as a player] has passed. People may know who I am, but I've got to prove myself all over again."

Reporter Joey Johnston can be reached at (813) 259-7353 or jjohnston@tampatrib.com.

http://www.tbo.com/sports/prepsports/MGBKYOO0J5F.html