USD Football 1995

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"Mosthings that coaches do have very little correlation to what happens on Saturday. So we eliminate the unnecessary, and,to be honest with you, Ithink almost everything is unnecessary."

JOHN GAGLIARDI

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GAGLIARDI IN 1953 (ABOVE). H IS F IRST SEASON AS ST. JOHN'S HEAD COACH.

Trinidad-Gagliard i his instincts and accepted a job as head coach at Carroll College, a small Catholic liberal arts school in Helena, Mont. After turning around what had been a dismal program al Carroll, St. John's look notice and hired Gagliardi to turn around a team that had not celebrated a conference championship in 15 years. "I d idn 't start off to be a coach," Gagliardi said. "So my whole approach was entirely different because all I was worried about was being a player, not a coach. And all I was trying to do was have an enjoyable Lime, and yet, hope- fully, a successful Lime." The young high school coach spared his teams the agony of going through the mundane-not to mention, accord- ing to Gagliardi, useless-rituals that football players tend to greet with all the enthusiasm of an 8-year-old boy sitt.ing down to a plate full of vegetables. "We threw out everything I didn't followed

like and the players d idn't like, and that was almost everything," he said. "Most things that coaches do have very little correlation to what happens on Saturday. So we eliminate the unneces- sary, and , to be honest with you, I think almost everything is unnecessary. ''We're happy with what we're doing. o. 1, it works, obviously. o. 2, it draws a lot of attention-not that we do it for that, but it does. And No. 3, o ur players

love it. So what more can you want?" At the core of Gagliardi's system are a long list of " os." As in, "No playbooks," " o tackling during practice," " o blocking sleds," "N o players cut," "No offseason compulsory weigh t program." The list goes on and on, and the pile of winsgets higher and higher. The '94 club went to the national semifinals, where the J ohnnies lost to eventual champion Albio n, 19-16. St. John 's, which won 23 CO NTI N UED