[boilerup]

Sorry, but Morris does not do the "real" coaching. He is in charge of the defense, and pretty much can do as he pleases there, but there are many discussions on what they are and Ivan still has the final say so. As far as offense goes, Mike Jones has a lot of influence, but Ivan always has and always will call it. You don't have to like what he calls, but this is what he does.

As far as being a "figurehead", that is absurd. He is lucky enough to have qualified coaches who can be counted on to take a group of players and instruct them without him having to be a position coach, but as soon as team period comes, Ivan is the one in the middle of it all, instructing and leading.

Another point, as long as I've been around the Russell program, I have NEVER seen Ivan cower or bend to parental or political pressures regarding who he plays. I know all of the coaches evaluate players to death to decide who plays. It has nothing to do with their name or parent reputation/complaining. Now, I probably was not close to the program when you played, so maybe something strange like that happened then, but I doubt it. No offense, but these types of accusations usually come from players who think they got shafted and another player played in front of them. That may not be your case, but it usually is.

As far as teaching in the classroom, I have no idea there. However, I know that the majority of head football coaches are PE teachers. No offense to PE teachers, but WOW, that must be hard. Now, many PE teachers dedicatedly work hard to have a good PE programs, but not many PE "coaches". Ivan taught social studies, a subject that is tested and has accountability. Maybe you think he didn't teach it as well as he could, but I doubt he was THAT bad.

Thats pretty interesting stuff. Because it doesn't seem that people are really getting to the heart of the matter. I keep hearing the same things that seem to me to be forgetting the big picture. And, of course I knew the sour grapes-type comment was coming. Thats what always happens in situations like this as well. Because one person finally says something about someone who many people idolize, its easier to dismiss this problem than to face it. The things that people overlook is allowing the most imporant. I never said he backed down to any PARENTS. My senior season (especially) he back down to the PLAYERS. It may sound absurd but (as I said above and no one mentioned again) the "stars" on the team were literally throwing "f-bombs" (if you will) to his face. What did he do? He took the people that were their backups and threatening to put them in if they didn't stop. That's whats absurd if you ask me. I saw my friends busting it everyday in practice to out perform these guys to no avail. What does that teach the players? Again, I stress that I experienced this stuff first hand. Its not a rumor. I was in the locker room. I got awards for my abilities. Its just as logical to say that if you support him you must have got to play, to say that because I complain I probably didn't. Thats not a valid argument either. Because what I'm describing happened, I'm not making it up. Regardless of the fact that my team went to the playoffs and won some games, it still happened. So the wins/losses don't matter in my book. It starts in the classroom and progresses to the field. Again, no one apparently comment on the fact that the sports part doesn't matter so much as the lessons you're teaching the students. Its just interesting to me that people will argue all day long about the grass on a field (which I might add has never seemed to work too well for us), but when someone questions the very foundation of why we even put a team out on that field, people get upset. Even greater is that many are saying they have no idea about his teaching in the classroom. Sorry to return to that but isn't that quite sad. We send our children to school to get an education and we don't know what goes on in the classroom. Ask any of those kids what they learned and if it didn't have anything to do with coloring then I'd be surprised. Read your children's myspace pages (if you aren't blocked from them) and you'll see that.