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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 22, 1981)
Page 14 THE BATTALION TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1981 Sports Former coach talks of famous teams Robertson a defensive genious Doubles highlight Ag tennis tourney will offii By RICK STOLLE app of I By RITCHIE PRIDDY Sports Editor This is the first of a two part series about Aggie defenses under Mel vin Robertson. The second part will follow in Wednesday’s paper. that When one thinks of great col legiate defensive teams of the past one has to think of the Texas Aggies. From 1973 to 1978 the Aggies led the Southwest Confer ence in defense while ranking high in national defensive statis tics. The man responsible for those defenses is Melvin Robertson. Robertson, who now owns two liquor stores in College Station, was the Aggies’ defensive coordi nator from 1973 to 1978. During that time his defenses were recog nized as some of the best in the land. Although temporarily out of coaching, Robertson is still consi dered by many to be one of the most intelligent defensive coaches in the game. This is evident by the number of coaching jobs he has been offered since leaving Texas A6cM in 1978. Robertson has re ceived job offers from as far away as the University of Pittsburgh and Mississippi State. Robertson came to Texas A&M in 1972 when Emory Bellard was named head coach. He and Bel lard had known each other for quite some time (they had coached against one another on more than one occasion) and when Bellard accepted the job, Robert son was the first person he called. Robertson began his coaching career in Stanton and after a suc cessful coaching stint there, moved on to Sweetwater, where his teams captured six district championships in as many years. In the fall of 1965, Robertson joined the University of Houston staff as a secondary coach for Bill Yeoman. That coaching staff in cluded former professional coaches Bum Phillips and Chuck Fairbanks. A year later Fairbanks left for Oklahoma and greener pastures, and Robertson was named defen sive coordinator. That was the be ginning of Robertson s claim to fame. During his tenure at Houston he put together a 4-3 defense that was no less than awesome, rated as the number five defense in the nation. Not many people can re member that Houston defense, since at the time, Houston was running a new veer offense while destroying opponents right and left. Robertson came to Texas A&M with just one thing in mind — to build a winning defense. He did just that. From 1973 to 1978 his teams dominated the SWC in total de fense all but one year, and were rated as the number three defen sive teams in the nation behind Alabama and Michigan in time. He didn’t do anything special to build his famous defensive squads, other than to throw in a little motivation. That motivation became a trademark of his teams, as did players of the caliber of Ed Simonini, Pat Thomas, Lester Hayes, Robert Jackson, Jackie Williams, Edgar Fields, Tank Marshall and Garth Ten Napel. The list goes on and on. He ran a basic 4-3 defense with a few alterations, something which many people deny. One can sense the excitement in Robertson’s voice as he de scribes his 4-3 defenses which be came feared and respected throughout the nation: “You have four down linemen attacking the offensive line — they can lay their ears back. If they can whip them, and you can get them to do that, you’ve got three linebackers that can slide up and down the line. They are the hardest people to block and those guys can flat get around the ball. Well, you’ve got four secondary guys keying backs, the ball and quick rotations. You can’t hardly block them. So, if the play is a run you’ve got seven guys that can get to the ball. Then, if those four linemen can escape their blocks, which they are taught to do, you have 11 players around the ball.” He said that if the offense sent a receiver deep, somebody would cover him, but the other 10 play ers were supposed to be within five yards of the ball. They usually were. “You throw in a little motivation and enthusiasm and you can swarm the field. That’s the best alignment to get the most people around the ball and that’s the name of the game anyway.” On occasion he would throw in a few stunts and blitzes to keep the offense honest. “I always felt that you’ve got to attack the offense. “We always got criticism that we blitzed too much. We didn’t blitz near as much as what people said." Robertson told his players that he wouldn’t call a blitz until they showed him that they could whip the other team. “I told them that they had to be cranked up — their motor running 100 percent — or I wouldn’t call anything because it would make us look bad if we got beat. I could tell if they were fired up out there. If they weren’t we’d run a straight 4-3 all day long.” Asked how he got his teams motivated he said: “You just talk to them. You know, about pride, hustle and motivation.” Robertson demanded an all-out effort from his defenses, another characteristic that set them apart from the average defense. “You’ve got to have your best players out there and they have to be tough, hard-nosed — the kind sea con the Zac cha Bui En Staff photo by Brian Tate Melvin Robertson, former defensive coordinator for the Texas Aggies, proudly stands in front his store window displaying some of the memorabilia from his coaching days. Robertson is considered by many people to be one of the finest defensive coaches in the game. that would not complain about broken legs or anything like that. I’m talking about those minor things that you are going to have all your life as long as you play football. “If you can’t play with a high level of efficiency, aggressiveness and never let the defense down you 11 never have a great defense — and that’s what we had. We had it where the entire defensive squad was like that. Practice would be unreal. They loved to practice. We had some fiin out there practicing. We were going hard and tough everyday. “We always preached to never be in the damn training room — didn’t want to see any of the defen sive guys in the training room.” Needless to say, very few defen sive players were hurt enough to report to the trainers. The 1975-76 teams stand out in his mind as two of his best defen sive squads. “The 1974 and 75 squads were good. The ’76 team was dang good. Those we re probably the best ones. We had two or three at Houston that were comparable but the offense was so good there they kind of overshadowed the de fense. “Here, we averaged 50 turnov ers a year — that’s five a ballgame. Plus, our opponents punted an av erage of eight times a game. Nor mally, you are going to get the ball 14 or 15 times per game, so you’re talking about eight times they didn’t do anything and five times we got a momentum-type thing like an interception or fumble. ” (continued) Battalion Staff The First Texas A&M University Three-way tournament turns out to be quite a tournament for matched pairs. David Pate and Greg Amayla of TCU were the finialists in single and the teams of Doug Crawford-Craig Kardon and Tom Foife ato Johnny Levine of the University of Texas were finalists in ’ the weekend tournament at the Omar Smith Tennis Centerontln no\ Texas A&M campus. Pate won the singles competition and the doubles championsb saic will be played later. The Aggies also had two doubles teams rear! the quarterfinals before falling to the two Texas teams. The Aggie team of Ron Kowal-Tom Judson beat Peter Mike Metzger of TCU 7-6, 7-5 in the first round. They then defeatd Chris Doane-Kevin Dul of TCU 6-3, 6-2 before losing to Kart Crawford 6-2, 6-2. Aggies Brian Joelson and Mike Pazourek beat Todd Lees; George Lee ofTCU 6-3, 6-2 and Paul Crozier-Ted E rek of Texas t retired before losing to Levine-Fontana. Texas A&M coach David Kent said, “The doubles matchbehseR Joelson and Pazourek against Levine and Fontana was tennis match since the NCAA finals. Both teams played their hear out and neither deserved to lose.” He said the upperclassmen did not play as well as expected! especially in singles, but the freshmen came through andplaytl very well. Two of the three juniors on the team lost in thell:I ( round. The Aggies have no seniors on the squad this year. Both Kowal and Judson lost first round matches but Kentsaidth*: two came back to play very' well in doubles. “The tournament a was great experience for us, Kent said,"®! freshmen played exceptionally well.” .. Kimmo Alkio, a freshman from Finland, took eventualchanpjr] 5 ' Pate to three sets before finally losing 4-6, 6-2, 6-0. “Kimmo played a great match, I think he surprised Pate at because Kimmo has played some tough matches and wasprq for him,” said Kent. “Unfortunately, the surprise wore off after first set.” Freshman Mike Pazourek defeated Kures and Metzger boll TCU 6-4, 0-6, 6-0 and 6-0, 6-0, respectively. He was defeated quarterflnalist Crozier of Texas 6-1, 6-4. Genario Fernandez defeated George Lee of TCU 7-6,6-7, before losing to teammate Joelson 6-2, 7-5. “Genario really showed some spunk in his matches, saidKei “He had a very good tournament.” The excellent showing by the freshmen encouraged Kent. He* he is optimistic about the season with the help and fineplaylk freshmen will provide. “They will certaintly give a lift to the team, he said. “0t freshmen must be considered a threat to anyone they play, andtlr | have the ability to play- with anyone in the conference. 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