First off, I know you’ve been coaching for a while now – can you let me know how you got started and what excited you about coaching?
When I retired after playing in Green Bay in 1998, I started up the House of Speed and trained professional athletes – we had 24 franchises and I did that for 23 years. Mostly though I kept feeling like I really wanted to go coach and mentor young men.
So I started coaching high school football at Aurora Christian High School and did that for 14 years – 10 as a head coach then four as an assistant coach helping out my brother. Then I went on and became the head coach at Aurora University.
Were there coaching lessons and influences that affected you the most?
Oh yes, two specifically.
I learned how to run a football program – what types of athletes to recruit from Coach Levy. He lives in Chicago – he’s 98 and my wife and I go to have dinner with he and Fran at least once a year.
When I took the high school coaching job in ’04 we had no field, no weight room and only 17 kids. We built the program up -we were like the Bad News Bears at first. But we won our first playoff game that first season and Coach Levy came and gave the team a great pre-game speech before that first playoff game!
How were you able to turn that program around so quickly?
That’s a good question. There were two reasons I think. First – at first the kids didn’t believe they could win. That’s a big part of it – just helping them see that they could win. The second thing was – people don’t understand how important offseason training is in order to get good. We helped them in the offseason to get better.
In the end we as coaches can only create the culture for players to succeed in. But the players are the ones that win games. Getting the kids to believe in themselves and for Coach Levy to come in – that was all very unique.
Coach Levy showed me how to run a football program – that you have to center it around character. To bring in coaches with good character and to build it in players.
Who else impacted you as a coach?
On the X’s and O’s and running an offense, Coach Holmgren was one of the brilliant minds in coaching – that stemmed from Bill Walsh and Andy Reid too. He knew how to run an offense. He was a stickler for details. As an example he’d impress upon us the need to run our splits precisely at three yards – not two. It mattered to the X’s and O’s of things. The depth and angles for every position were essential. I kept my playbooks and notes from those days and all I’ve done is make it all fit for what I do now. I morphed the no-huddle and West Coast offense into our book, and I’ve been fortunate to have been successful.
As a smaller wide receiver for your time, what enabled you to break the mold and find success?
Back then smaller receivers in the 80’s and 90’s weren’t as common – teams were using taller receivers. They ran more two wide receiver sets instead of the three and four you see today. James Lofton and Andre Reed were taller guys.
For me, I knew I was gifted at running. I fell to the perfect team. We started running three receiver sets. I was the main guy to stretch the defense. We had two guys – me and Lofton – who could do it, and clear out the middle for the greatest slot receiver to play the game in Andre Reed. And of course we had guys like Jim Kelly and Thurman Thomas!
You had so much success against the Steelers – the four touchdown game in ’91 and you led the team in yards and receptions in ’93. Why was that?
I’m not sure why. The Steelers had great defensive backs – Woodson and Lake…. Jim used to love to play against the Steelers and had big games against them – I guess because they were his hometown team!
I have this expression I use – “I always par this hole and not that hole.” I think you just have success sometimes against certain teams and you aren’t always sure why. I think the Steelers’ bigger cornerbacks – maybe I matched up well due to my size. They could run too, but I was always able to get vertical on them for some reason. Maybe they gave too much attention to Lofton and Reed instead of using more blanket coverage. That’s the coach in me! But I wouldn’t have locked in on one or two guys – I would have gone with a blanket defense and try more to slow our offense down. We had too many weapons.
What memories from those games stand out most for you?
Well the four touchdown game for sure – that was huge for me. I think that is still a Bills record? In a game like that, you have no idea how many catches and yards you have. I wasn’t aware until Lynn Swann who was announcing the game asked me afterwards if I had any idea how many yards I had. When you’re going through it you just don’t realize it.
What was behind that success do you think?
I think because Thurman Thomas was running so well early they had to keep guys in the box. That leaves the receivers with a lot of one-on-one situations. It all starts with the running game. Coach Levy said that then and any coach who knows football knows that you first have to tun the ball and stop the run.
Any other fun stories?
My favorite story is the first time I got on the field in ’89. I was the Bills first pick that season – they didn’t have a first or second round pick, so I knew I had to perform. But I didn’t play the first two games. They used a lot of two wide receiver sets on first and second downs and I was really the fourth guy at the time behind Lofton, Reed and Chris Burkett.
Then Jim Kelly went to the coaching staff and told them they needed to get me on the field more – that I was a third round pick and needed to play. They ended up cutting Burkett that day!
So the third game of the season I got on the field on third down. We ran the ball but Cris Dishman lined up across from me and got in my face, talking trash. He said “Hey White boy – I heard you can run! Let’s see it!’ Not in a bad way – just being funny. I thought “Oh boy, this is going to be tough.”
The next time I got on the field I caught a 67-yard yard bomb on Dishman! What was funny was the next series I came out again on third down. We ran the ball, but that time Dishman backed up eight steps and told me “Damn, I guess the White boy can run!”
As a coach and former Bill, what are your thoughts on the Steelers-Bills game Sunday?
Well for the Steelers, you have to hand it to Tomlin and what he’s accomplished. Always being above .500 – he’s an impressive coach.
But I can see on all six Super Bowl teams I’ve been on, what was most consistent across them all is that they got hot at the end of the season. I think Buffalo is doing that now. It’s going to be tough for the Steelers to go into Buffalo and win. They better slow down the game with their run game and keep Josh Allen off the field. If they can do that they’ll have a chance.
I think you’ve got to force Josh to make mistakes – because he will – we saw that against Miami. They got lucky to get out with a win. You have to keep Allen off the field and score points – and create some schematics that will confuse him and force mistakes if he feels like he needs to make a play. And that includes not letting him beat you with his legs as well.