Q: What attracted you to this project and what do you hope this group will accomplish?

A: My love of the game is what attracted me. I could have never gone to college without a football scholarship. I know the pressure and the hard work that the college coaches put in. And I think that by having a Master Coaches Survey, we can relieve them of a lot of pressure in regards to the college poll because we have enough time to look at film, to examine everything, whereas the coaches who are active, they’re preparing for another ball game.

Q: What perspective do you think the Master Coaches can provide that other groups, such as the media, might be lacking when it comes to ranking teams?

A: As a coach, you take into consideration everything — the strength of the schedule, the personnel that you have, the injury situations, how your team has been playing — all of those things become factors in trying to evaluate where that particular team should be ranked.

Q: How special was it to look around the conference rooms and see the quality of the group that has been assembled. What has been this experience been like so far?

A: That’s the really the No. 2 reason for me being here — the fellowship with all the other old-time coaches. Guys that have been shot at and hit like I have through the years. I really admire them and I really enjoy being around the other coaches.

Coach LaVell Edwards

Q: Many of the Master Coaches have been asked to participate in different polls. What attracted you to the Master Coaches Survey?

A: Rather than just being involved in a particular poll, I think this one has merit in that it only has football coaches involved and only retired football coaches that have the time now and will be able to look at film and study it and watch more than one or two games per week. That way, nobody’s got a particular ax to grind. I think it’s going to be fun, it’s going to be kind of interesting to me.

Q: As the Master Coaches discussed the process for ranking teams, it was obvious that everyone has a great passion for making sure the poll is run correctly and fairly? Do you feel good about the direction of the survey?

A: I think one of the concerns that we have is that it might be hurried a little bit, that it might be better to maybe wait a year. But on the other hand, I think the iron is hot right now. And with the present situation, with the BCS and the polls and the controversy that we’ve had the past two or three years, I think now is the right time to go ahead and do it.

Coach Vince Dooley

Q: There seemed to be some spirited discussion as the Master Coaches debated the proper way to evaluate teams each week. Does that just show how committed everyone is to not just doing the survey, but doing it the best possible way?

A: I think everybody here is conscientious about doing a good job. So much of it is opinions and how we feel, but we do feel like we not only express opinions, but we are somewhat experts because that’s how we made our livelihood. So I think we are capable of judging, and we have a little more time to give a little more thought to it than what some others might have that are strictly looking at scores each week. We can study teams a little more in-depth, and I think that will help us be better evaluators.”

Q: You have obviously remained very active since your retirement from coaching, but a lot of the Master Coaches seem excited about staying intimately close to the game they love. Is that part of the interest for you as well?

A: I think what this will do is it will keep us even more involved. I think we watch football with special interest because it’s been so much a part of our lives. When you get out of it, you’re not quite as intense as you once were. But this will definitely have the effect of getting everybody a little more involved in it than we’d been in a long time. And that’s kind of stimulating when you get back to watching films and studying teams. You do that, but you haven’t done it as much as we will now that we have this group that will be involved in voting and expressing opinions about who we think are some of the best teams in the country.”

Q: The group got a lot of business accomplished in a short amount of time during this conference, but was it also special to just rekindle past friendships from your coaching days?

A: It’s kind of been a reunion. We’re quite a fraternity. We used to spend a lot of time together at coaches’ conventions, and it’s been a while since we’ve all come together as a group. So when you get about 20 coaches — most of whom have done very well — together, it is like a reunion. Then we start talking and discussing things, then you can see the competitive juices come out. We have some disagreements, but the great thing about it is we can disagree and still walk back out the best of friends. So it’s been a great experience, a great reunion, and I think it’s going to lead to more interaction between a lot of guys that have spent a lot of time together in the past.”

<<BACK