Anyone who has glanced at a calendar recently readily knows that fall is officially upon us. What might not be as obvious is the realization that this weekend will mark the beginning of the second half of the high school football season. The first five weekends of the schoolboy season have passed by without much drama. There have been few ‘upsets’ and the ‘mercy rule’ has frequently been invoked as blowouts have been prevalent.

While the final score is the ultimate definer of a team’s seasonal success or failure, there always exists a multitude of ‘behind the scenes’ occurrences that provide inspiration, humor, perseverance or drama that those outside the confines of the locker room have little knowledge. When watching televised sporting events with my late father, as soon as the final play of the game was over, he would immediately turn off the TV. My viewing habits are quite the opposite. Depending on the team involved I’ll stay with the broadcast long after to hear what those who coach or play the game have to say.

It hasn’t yet made it into Webster’s lexicon of terms, but ‘coach speak’ is a language all to its own. Coach speak can loosely be defined as to when a head coach makes comments about a player or team situation. Perhaps more accurately, it could be referred to as coaching double-talk. Yes, their mouths are open, and words are coming out, but what is it that they are really saying?

Generally, when coaches are speaking to the media, they are very guarded about what they are saying. They know that have an obligation, but they don’t what to say much for fear of revealing team information, offending someone or providing ‘bulletin board’ information for a future opponent. Perhaps the champion of all ‘coach speakers’ is New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick who approaches press conferences and post-game interviews with the same enthusiasm of someone going to a dental appointment.

Earlier this month I was intrigued by the ‘coach-speak’ comments of the Pittsburgh and Widener coaches following close losses to Penn State and Lycoming.

Perhaps the most controversial statement made by a coach this season was uttered by Pitt’s headman Pat Narduzzi following their 17-10 loss to the Nittany Lions. Trailing by seven with five minutes to play with the ball on Penn State’s 1-yard line, Narduzzi chose to try a field goal on fourth down rather than go for the touchdown. The field goal missed, and so did Pitt’s chances of a potential upset in what very well could be the last game ever played between Pennsylvania’s two most significant collegiate programs.

In his post-game media meeting, Narduzzi told the gathering, “I don’t question that call, because you need two scores to win the football game.” While the coach is right on that one, you needed one score to tie the game at that point, which would allow you some time to work on getting that second score.

At David Person Field visiting Widener had their way with Lycoming College as senior quarterback Sean McGaughey torched the Warriors secondary for 325 passing yards and a 28-16 halftime lead. Seemingly with Lycoming’s little answer to the Pride’s passing game Widener coach Mike Barainyak went away from his team’s successful passing attack in the second half to “try to find a spark in the Pride’s running game.” As a result, his team averaged just 2.8 yards a carry the rest of the game fueling a dramatic 20-0 Lycoming fourth-quarter comeback for a 43-42 victory.
Perhaps there are times when coaches shouldn’t say anything. And then are times when they might not know what to say.

It might prove very interesting to be a ‘fly on the wall’ in those locker rooms of South Williamsport, Jersey Shore, Shikellamy, Montoursville and Danville these next five weeks. The common dominator among the quintet is they all are awaiting match-ups, or perhaps more accurately, mismatches with the powerful Southern Columbia Tigers. Make no mistake; all five have prideful football legacies but grabbing this tiger by the tail seems like an insurmountable task.

In their first four games heading into last week’s game against neighboring Central Columbia, Southern had defeated Hammond, South Carolina, Mt. Carmel, Selinsgrove and Shamokin by a combined 220-0 score. As one member of the coaching fraternity, himself a Southern Columbia graduate, recently told me “Southern has built its program to a point where even their younger kids are buying into to shutting out every opponent on their schedule.”

Coach Jim Roth, his 12 assistant coaches and nine-time PIAA state champion Tigers are loaded. Their 55-player roster features 19 seniors, 18 juniors, 15 sophomores, and three freshman and big-time Division One recruits, wide receiver Julian Fleming (Ohio State) and Gaige Garcia (Michigan). Going into the Central Columbia game, they have won a Pennsylvania State record 76 consecutive games. Their last loss was in the 2016 state championship game.

Officially classified as a Class AA Pennsylvania school, they are ranked as the number 2 team in the state (behind Philadelphia’s St. Joseph Prep) and are listed as the 135th team nationally. Their web site tells you all you need to know starting, “There is no substitute for strength and no excuse for a lack of it.”

In general, I think it can be said that coaches speak optimistically in public and realistically behind closed doors. Most likely, we’ll never know what they say about the Tigers.