In 1964 I got my first job in football as assistant coach at Hastings College in Nebraska. Hastings was a small Division III school, with rivals like Colorado Mines and Chadron State, but I thought I was coaching in the Rose Bowl every week, believe me.Our best player at Hastings was a rough-and-tumble hardworking guy name Jack Giddings, who played fullback on offense and safety on defense. We were heading toward big game of the year, with Nebraska Wesleyan, which had been killing people all season with a bootleg pass play. I took a lot of time that week drilling our defense to stop it.
The first time Nebraska Wesleyan got inside out 20-yard-line, they ran that bootleg. And scored an easy touchdown on Gidding's side of the field.
Well, I was irate. Almost out of control. I got on Giddings something terrible: "I went over this with you -- how could let this happen?" I ranted for a while, until Dean Pryor, my head coach, came up and said, "Leave the player alone."
"But, Coach, we worked on this a hundred times in practice ---"
Pryor stopped me cold: "Well, you didn't work on it enough, because he didn't get it."
That cut like a knife in my heart, but it was one of the best lessons I've ever learned.
Accountability starts at the top. You can't build an accountable organization without leaders who take full responsibility.
From "Finding A Way To Win" by Bill Parcells with Jeff Coplon
