OneManGang
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Interloper Alert
Greetings, VolNation readers. This week your guru of warrior wisdom, One Man Gang, is in Nashville edifying the masses and getting paid to do it. He has asked me to hold forth on the Maxims of Football until he returns. Bringing you tales of ancient belligerence, I remain, Chartervol.
Back in 1962 it was apparent a hotshot quarterback from Johnson City, Tenn. was never going to play a snap at the University of Tennessee. Tennessee insisted on clinging to the single wing, and this kid did not fancy being a old-fashioned tailback. Pulling guards and quick kicks? Quaint. Ball, oskie, cut and slice? Jabber. Put on more steam? Not likely.
Florida came calling instead and the Science Hill product became a Heisman Trophy quarterback. Eventually he went into the football coaching business, and everywhere he went the old UT recruiting grudge lingered. Be bedeviled the Vols at Duke and he ran his gator as the Head Ball Coach at Florida. He was cocky at South Carolina. He loved to beat Tennessee and he loved to mouth off about it, too. At Florida he was sometimes the only blot on the Vols annual report card. Peyton Manning couldnt beat him and he gave Phillip Fulmer the night terrors. At South Carolina he finally ran out of little smart pills, and a few weeks ago he just said to hell with it. Just like that. Walked off. Barely told his players goodbye.
Steve Spurrier quit on his team.
In retrospect it is well that Spurrier didnt happen at Tennessee. He would have been a total misfit in a place that retires jerseys of ordinary players who died in the war. A place that named its stadium after a general and celebrates non-quitters such as Austin C. Shofner.
Austin Conner Shofner was born in Chattanooga and grew up in the family ancestral lands of Bedford County, Tennessee. At the University of Tennessee he was a backup tackle for Gen. R.R. Neyland in 1936-37. Shifty lettered in football and wrestling and earned his UT diploma in 1937.
In 1941 Shofner was a lieutenant and company commander in the Fourth Marine Regiment in Shanghai, China. In November of that year the unit was transferred to the Philippines in the expectation of Japanese military aggression, which came soon enough. Shofner saw action at Corregidor in early 1942. For his valor he received the Silver Star with Oak Leaf Cluster, and a promotion to captain.
Corregidor fell in May 1942 and Shofner found himself in Japanese captivity. He and his comrades were shuffled from POW camp to POW camp; they endured the Bataan Death March. Beatings, starvation, bugs, heat, torture, filth and disease. Hell for 11 months.
And then in April 1943 a few of them caught a break. Seeing an opportunity, Shofner recruited an escape party of 10 Marines and a pair of Filipino soldiers. When the time was right they slipped away from a work detail outside the gates of the Davao POW camp and vanished.
The escapees fled to the northwest, hacking their way through the Mindanao jungle. What did they eat? Anything that couldnt eat us, Shofner recalled.
Deliverance came in the form of Filipino guerrillas, who sheltered the fugitives within the 110th Division, a makeshift resistance force made up of various U.S. military and Filipino personnel fighting around Mindanao. Shofner and the other escapees promptly returned to action. In one epic exploit, the 110th managed to rescue 500 prisoners who were slated for execution.
Supplies came to the 110th by submarine from Gen. Douglas MacArthurs base in Australia. In November 1943 Shofner a major nowboarded one of the supply submarines and shoved off for Australia to report the details of the horrific Japanese POW camp conditions. Shofners accounts of starvation and brutality are credited with deepening American resolve.
Shofner and his fellow Marines went on to join the First Marine Division and fought in various Pacific engagements including Peleliu and Okinawa. Promotions and more medals came Shofners way. Eventually he earned the rank of brigadier general; he retired from active duty in 1959.
The Pentagon of the Second World War knew a public relations opportunity when it saw one, and in 1944 Shofner and his mates were given a couple months leave to return to the States to tell their stories, sell a few war bonds, and get a home-cooked meal or two.
During the tour Shofner got the chance to reconnect with his old football coach at the University of Tennessee. Tears welled in Neylands eyes when his reserve tackle from Shelbyville credited the Maxims of Football for helping bring him home.
You always taught us to play for the breaks, and when one comes your way, score, he told the General. Thats what I did.
So how did the team do compared to the Maxims?
1. The team that makes the fewest mistakes will win.
This maxim could have been restated the team that makes the last mistake will lose. Both teams pulled enough boneheaded moves to lose two or three games.
The key mistake was not Josh Malone whiffing on a perfect touchdown pass, it was the targeting call on senior safety Brian Randolph in the first quarter, when he changed Pharoh Coopers ZIP code. Tennessee was already playing the first half without cornerback Emmanuel Moseley for a second-half decleating in Lexington. The Vols lost their stinger at that point; it cost them a big lead and it came within a chicken feather of costing them the ballgame.
2. Play for and make the breaks. When one comes your way SCORE!
South Carolina gets the nod here for scoring on fourth down following a Tennessee turnover and penalty. Take that sequence away and the game probably never would have been all that close.
3. If at first the game or the breaks go against you, dont let up PUT ON MORE STEAM!
Credit the Vols for answering with a touchdown drive after surrendering yet another 17-point lead. The Volunteers kept pushing, although they dont get style points for that.
4. Protect our kickers, our quarterback, our lead and our ballgame.
Pass blocking continues to improve, although at times Mr. Dobbs got a lot of time to pass because the Cocks werent always bringing all that much heat. Protecting our lead? Not so much, but then again when you look around the country there is a lot of lead-blowing going on. Makes you wonder if theres something cultural going on with the younguns these days.
5. Ball! Oskie! Cover, block, cut and slice, pursue and gang tackle THIS IS THE WINNING EDGE.
See Tennessees last defensive snap. If you can stand to watch it. Hat tip to junior nickel Malik Foreman for pursuing the play and causing the game winning turnover.
6. Press the kicking game. Here is where the breaks are made.
The teams fought this facet of the game more or less to a draw, but kudos to Aaron Medley & Co. for punching through the game winning margin.
7. Carry the fight to South Carolina and keep it there for sixty minutes.
As One Man Gang has stated in this space several times, returning to prominence is a process. Part of that process is learning how to win when you dont play well. These things happen a lot in November, as the long season takes its toll and the line at the whirlpool gets four deep. This time of year young teams that have had some success have days when they let up too soon. Tennessee, just when they started thinking about running the table, and fresh off a 90s-style boat-racing of Kentucky, apparently thought the Gamecocks would fold after the opening two drives. They didnt. So, no, you cant Carry the Fight for 10 minutes and expect USC to fire up the buses. Lesson learned? Well see.
Epilogue
After his military career Austin Shofner returned to Shelbyville, where he worked in insurance and finance and raised a family with his bride Kathleen. When he died in 1999 at the age of 83, the Tennessee Volunteers were the defending national champions of college football.
Suggested reading:
Escape From Davao: The Forgotten Story of the Most Daring Prison Break of the Pacific War
by John D. Lukacs
© 2015
Keeping Your Stories Alive
Greetings, VolNation readers. This week your guru of warrior wisdom, One Man Gang, is in Nashville edifying the masses and getting paid to do it. He has asked me to hold forth on the Maxims of Football until he returns. Bringing you tales of ancient belligerence, I remain, Chartervol.
Back in 1962 it was apparent a hotshot quarterback from Johnson City, Tenn. was never going to play a snap at the University of Tennessee. Tennessee insisted on clinging to the single wing, and this kid did not fancy being a old-fashioned tailback. Pulling guards and quick kicks? Quaint. Ball, oskie, cut and slice? Jabber. Put on more steam? Not likely.
Florida came calling instead and the Science Hill product became a Heisman Trophy quarterback. Eventually he went into the football coaching business, and everywhere he went the old UT recruiting grudge lingered. Be bedeviled the Vols at Duke and he ran his gator as the Head Ball Coach at Florida. He was cocky at South Carolina. He loved to beat Tennessee and he loved to mouth off about it, too. At Florida he was sometimes the only blot on the Vols annual report card. Peyton Manning couldnt beat him and he gave Phillip Fulmer the night terrors. At South Carolina he finally ran out of little smart pills, and a few weeks ago he just said to hell with it. Just like that. Walked off. Barely told his players goodbye.
Steve Spurrier quit on his team.
In retrospect it is well that Spurrier didnt happen at Tennessee. He would have been a total misfit in a place that retires jerseys of ordinary players who died in the war. A place that named its stadium after a general and celebrates non-quitters such as Austin C. Shofner.
Austin Conner Shofner was born in Chattanooga and grew up in the family ancestral lands of Bedford County, Tennessee. At the University of Tennessee he was a backup tackle for Gen. R.R. Neyland in 1936-37. Shifty lettered in football and wrestling and earned his UT diploma in 1937.
In 1941 Shofner was a lieutenant and company commander in the Fourth Marine Regiment in Shanghai, China. In November of that year the unit was transferred to the Philippines in the expectation of Japanese military aggression, which came soon enough. Shofner saw action at Corregidor in early 1942. For his valor he received the Silver Star with Oak Leaf Cluster, and a promotion to captain.
Corregidor fell in May 1942 and Shofner found himself in Japanese captivity. He and his comrades were shuffled from POW camp to POW camp; they endured the Bataan Death March. Beatings, starvation, bugs, heat, torture, filth and disease. Hell for 11 months.
And then in April 1943 a few of them caught a break. Seeing an opportunity, Shofner recruited an escape party of 10 Marines and a pair of Filipino soldiers. When the time was right they slipped away from a work detail outside the gates of the Davao POW camp and vanished.
The escapees fled to the northwest, hacking their way through the Mindanao jungle. What did they eat? Anything that couldnt eat us, Shofner recalled.
Deliverance came in the form of Filipino guerrillas, who sheltered the fugitives within the 110th Division, a makeshift resistance force made up of various U.S. military and Filipino personnel fighting around Mindanao. Shofner and the other escapees promptly returned to action. In one epic exploit, the 110th managed to rescue 500 prisoners who were slated for execution.
Supplies came to the 110th by submarine from Gen. Douglas MacArthurs base in Australia. In November 1943 Shofner a major nowboarded one of the supply submarines and shoved off for Australia to report the details of the horrific Japanese POW camp conditions. Shofners accounts of starvation and brutality are credited with deepening American resolve.
Shofner and his fellow Marines went on to join the First Marine Division and fought in various Pacific engagements including Peleliu and Okinawa. Promotions and more medals came Shofners way. Eventually he earned the rank of brigadier general; he retired from active duty in 1959.
The Pentagon of the Second World War knew a public relations opportunity when it saw one, and in 1944 Shofner and his mates were given a couple months leave to return to the States to tell their stories, sell a few war bonds, and get a home-cooked meal or two.
During the tour Shofner got the chance to reconnect with his old football coach at the University of Tennessee. Tears welled in Neylands eyes when his reserve tackle from Shelbyville credited the Maxims of Football for helping bring him home.
You always taught us to play for the breaks, and when one comes your way, score, he told the General. Thats what I did.
So how did the team do compared to the Maxims?
1. The team that makes the fewest mistakes will win.
This maxim could have been restated the team that makes the last mistake will lose. Both teams pulled enough boneheaded moves to lose two or three games.
The key mistake was not Josh Malone whiffing on a perfect touchdown pass, it was the targeting call on senior safety Brian Randolph in the first quarter, when he changed Pharoh Coopers ZIP code. Tennessee was already playing the first half without cornerback Emmanuel Moseley for a second-half decleating in Lexington. The Vols lost their stinger at that point; it cost them a big lead and it came within a chicken feather of costing them the ballgame.
2. Play for and make the breaks. When one comes your way SCORE!
South Carolina gets the nod here for scoring on fourth down following a Tennessee turnover and penalty. Take that sequence away and the game probably never would have been all that close.
3. If at first the game or the breaks go against you, dont let up PUT ON MORE STEAM!
Credit the Vols for answering with a touchdown drive after surrendering yet another 17-point lead. The Volunteers kept pushing, although they dont get style points for that.
4. Protect our kickers, our quarterback, our lead and our ballgame.
Pass blocking continues to improve, although at times Mr. Dobbs got a lot of time to pass because the Cocks werent always bringing all that much heat. Protecting our lead? Not so much, but then again when you look around the country there is a lot of lead-blowing going on. Makes you wonder if theres something cultural going on with the younguns these days.
5. Ball! Oskie! Cover, block, cut and slice, pursue and gang tackle THIS IS THE WINNING EDGE.
See Tennessees last defensive snap. If you can stand to watch it. Hat tip to junior nickel Malik Foreman for pursuing the play and causing the game winning turnover.
6. Press the kicking game. Here is where the breaks are made.
The teams fought this facet of the game more or less to a draw, but kudos to Aaron Medley & Co. for punching through the game winning margin.
7. Carry the fight to South Carolina and keep it there for sixty minutes.
As One Man Gang has stated in this space several times, returning to prominence is a process. Part of that process is learning how to win when you dont play well. These things happen a lot in November, as the long season takes its toll and the line at the whirlpool gets four deep. This time of year young teams that have had some success have days when they let up too soon. Tennessee, just when they started thinking about running the table, and fresh off a 90s-style boat-racing of Kentucky, apparently thought the Gamecocks would fold after the opening two drives. They didnt. So, no, you cant Carry the Fight for 10 minutes and expect USC to fire up the buses. Lesson learned? Well see.
Epilogue
After his military career Austin Shofner returned to Shelbyville, where he worked in insurance and finance and raised a family with his bride Kathleen. When he died in 1999 at the age of 83, the Tennessee Volunteers were the defending national champions of college football.
Suggested reading:
Escape From Davao: The Forgotten Story of the Most Daring Prison Break of the Pacific War
by John D. Lukacs
© 2015
Keeping Your Stories Alive
