The Bear

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oldfoggy

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Dec 15, 2001
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Does anyone remember the Bear at Bama against teams, he would start his 2nd string, tire the other team out then bring in his 1st string to get the job done. Against Samford this might have been a good idea gives the 2nd team experience against a team who is fresh and make them work harder. Bear won many games with this philosophy.
 
Conventional wisdom today would never allow these kind of ideas. That was very popular in the one platoon days.

Sitting Reggie or forcing him to run an offense that was more than 'dink and draw' would have been nice and could have benefitted Tech in the future.
 
The Bear had about 200 guys on scholarship so it wasn't too much of a stretch for him to do that.
 
Actually no, I never remember that happening and I've never read anything about it either. Any links perchance?
 
ncjacket: In the one platoon days it happen alot. I have a book from the 1950's on footballs greatest coaches where one coach actually played his 2nd team players for the entire game for 3 consecutive games while practicing his 1st team for the 4th game.....the big game. It worked.
 
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oldfoggy said:
Does anyone remember the Bear at Bama against teams, he would start his 2nd string, tire the other team out then bring in his 1st string to get the job done. Against Samford this might have been a good idea gives the 2nd team experience against a team who is fresh and make them work harder. Bear won many games with this philosophy.
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State is right. Back in those days they didn't have scholarship limits and Bear Bryant's 4 string was almost as good as his first. This is why Bobby Dodd fought relentlessly to get scholarship limits imposed because he thought Bear Bryant took advantage of the system by offering scholarships to anyone and everyone. This strategy would NEVER work today for ANY team. As an old alumn of Tech, I would have figured you to know these things.
 
Thanks, as I said I don't remember it (not old enough I guess) and have never seen any mention of it.
 
oldfoggy said:
Does anyone remember the Bear at Bama against teams, he would start his 2nd string, tire the other team out then bring in his 1st string to get the job done. Against Samford this might have been a good idea gives the 2nd team experience against a team who is fresh and make them work harder. Bear won many games with this philosophy.
Click to expand...

Not only that Fog,
I also remember going to watch GT@Bama once and seeing on offense, Bama march a 1st down team on the field only to be replaced by a 2nd down team and then another team for 3rd down. Of course the 4th down team was a special team. This actually happened, I know, I was there and saw it.
 
BarrelORum said:
This is why Bobby Dodd fought relentlessly to get scholarship limits imposed because he thought Bear Bryant took advantage of the system by offering scholarships to anyone and everyone.
Click to expand...

If I remember my history correctly, Dodd fought AGAINST the imposition of scholarship limits and that was the reason why he pulled us out of the SEC.

Dodd believed that every scholarship player deserved FOUR years whether they played or not or got injured or not. What that meant was Tech would be at a disadvange because we had a lot of people on football scholarships who were no longer playing - they gave up football, had been injured, had run out of eligibility but had not graduated.

Dodd felt that with scholarship limits Bear (actually all schools) would exploit players by giving them a scholly, but taking it back if they were injured or somebody better came along.
 
There were scholly limits, 40 to be exact. Also that was after the one platoon system had been abolished. Had that been the case Bear would have probably done things differently. You must be thinking of Paul Dietzel(sp) at LSU who used the 1 platoon to great advantage with his Chinese Bandits. Also during that time as I said Bear would wear out a team with the 2nd and 3rd string then finish the job with the 1st string. During many of Bears years freshman were not allowed so a player only played for 3 years not 4.
 
OF, are you sure there were scholly limits back then? Certainly not 40 total for all classes. When I started at Tech in '72 there were 90-100 players on scholarship.
 
ramblinwise1 said:
OF, are you sure there were scholly limits back then? Certainly not 40 total for all classes. When I started at Tech in '72 there were 90-100 players on scholarship.
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There were 40 scholly's giving a total of 160 on scholly. Walk ons I guess you could have as many as you wanted. Don't really know about walk ons. Prior to the time Bear came to Bama (I was in school there at the time) I truly don't know if there were limits. The or should I say of the many problems Dodd had with Bear was Bear would pull a scholly if the guy didn't pan out.
 
Bear Bryant was an asshole.

beej67,
contributing nothing to the thread
 
There were also issues back then were a kid would be playing on the football team but have a swimming/tennis/whatever scholarship to get around the limits.
 
beej67 said:
Bear Bryant was an asshole.

beej67,
contributing nothing to the thread
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Maybe so but did he win, did he have MNC's yep think he did. The guy drank too much, did many things I didn't like. But, you calling him an AHOLE you contributes nothing to the thread. It's about use of 1st ,2nd 3rd teams and defeating a foe by wearing them out. After Dodd retired would you not have like a Bear type at Tech?
 
Geeteelee, you are more than likely correct with your view on history. what I refered to was back then they didn't have a limit on the number of scholly's you could give out. Now it is 85 scholly's, but there was a time when that number could be over 100. Bear handed them out to everyone, hence his unbelievable depth.
 
ramblinwise1 said:
OF, are you sure there were scholly limits back then? Certainly not 40 total for all classes. When I started at Tech in '72 there were 90-100 players on scholarship.
Click to expand...

Yep there was a limit of 40 per year. I don't remember when it went in effect but that's 160 for 4 years. So to have had 100+ on schollies would not suprise me. Maybe it's correct there were no limits before Bear came to Bama in 58 but I remember the Bear screaming about the limits when they were put in place. If they had limits before that I don't know.
 
OK lets say 160 total. And teams like Bama and UGA would sign up as many as they could afford just to keep them playing for someone else. Its a big reason there is more parity now.
 
I have found this to be a very interesting thread. Seems I remember Bobby Bowden playing second string first in lesser games, then bringing out the first string subsequently. In fact, I think he did this in each half.

I wish Chan Gailey was an AHole.
 
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