Look out, Bama

[quietfan 233]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/columns/story?id=3405133

A combine at sea? No problem for coaches, service members

Friday, May 23

ABOARD THE USS NASSAU, AT SEA -- The USS Nassau runs on diesel that fuels two steam propulsion plants, if you want to be technical about it. But anyone serving on this amphibious assault ship, from the youngest seaman to the commanding officer, will tell you that what really fuels the Nassau is morale.

The five college football coaches visiting American military personnel in the Middle East arrived at just the right time.

"We just got to the halfway point of this deployment," said Lt. Ike Stutts of Decatur, Ala. "You're excited to be halfway done, [but] you're really down. We have that [loss of] morale up. You have to worry that all anybody is saying is, 'Same thing today.' It's very 'Groundhog Day.'"

If you ever saw that 1993 film, then you understand why Friday became the day on the Nassau when the DJ interrupted the replay of Sonny and Cher singing "I Got You Babe." From the moment that the 2008 Coaches' Tour landed on the flight deck in a CH-53 helicopter, the same ol', same ol' ceased to exist.

"There are some pretty rabid fans on this ship," said Petty Officer 2nd Class Brian Edgar of Marietta, Ohio. "It's a pride thing. … For a lot of guys, that's how they define where they're from."

During the 24 hours on the Nassau, the coaches -- Mark Richt of Georgia, Randy Shannon of Miami, Jack Siedlecki of Yale, Tommy Tuberville of Auburn and Charlie Weis of Notre Dame -- toured the Nassau, signed posters and T-shirts in the crew mess Friday night and held a question-and-answer session in the hangar bay on Saturday morning.

The response from the 1,147 men and women on board resounded with joy and excitement. The only visitors they have received since they left their home base in Norfolk, Va., in February have been Navy brass.

When Seaman Paul Crosby spotted Weis in a passageway during the ship tour, his face lit up.

"I'm from Indianapolis!" Crosby said.

Weis, assuming he could bond with a fellow Indianan, offered his hand and said, "That's what I'm talking about! Give me a little something!"

Crosby, who's actually from Greenfield, Ind., may be a Fighting Irish fan. But he confessed to Weis, the former New England Patriots' assistant: "It's nice to like you finally. I'm a fan of the Colts."

The tour took the coaches from the well decks to the bridge of the ship that the Navy calls Top Gator. Afterward, the visitors stopped being tourists and started coaching again. Welcome to the Under Armour USS Nassau Combine, surely the first football combine ever held on the flight deck of an assault ship at sea.

The coaches did their best to make the flight deck look like a practice field, although you would have to squint real hard not to notice the 360 degrees of salt water meeting horizon. With small red cones, the coaches marked off a 40-yard dash, 20- and 60-yard shuttles and a three-cone drill.

"That's a pretty good setting for having a 40-yard dash," Tuberville said. "You can always have the wind at your back."

The no-skid flight deck might keep helicopters from bouncing and blowing about, but the 10 men who competed in the running drills slid around as if they had entered the French Open. Most of them looked like Master At Arms Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael Sanders of Pensacola, Fla., a former high school wide receiver.

"I've always had a competitive spirit," Sanders said, "but here I'm 23. I'm getting into my has-been years."

Tuberville manned the starting line. Shannon operated the stopwatch at the other end. When Weis walked up, he shouted at Shannon, "I'm going to run the 40, Randy. Ready? Got a calendar?"

Airman Bryan Blackler of Waldoboro, Maine, took the 40 with a 4.98, the only sub-five time. Blackler, 21, said he won 12 letters in five sports, none of them football -- his high school didn't field a team.

After the running drills, the combine moved to the ship's weight room, where each participant did as many reps as he could of 185 pounds. When it ended, Airman Romaine Taylor and Seaman Courtney Taylor had tied for first place.

At the end of the Q and A with the coaches Saturday came the awards ceremony, with prizes ranging from Under Armour shirts to signed posters to signed footballs for Taylor and Turner.

Now that college football has overtime, there couldn't be a tie. Taylor and Turner were summoned to the front of the assembly, where Shannon refereed the playoff: a round of Rock, Paper, Scissors. Let the record show that Taylor won in the second round, paper covering rock.

Once again:

Great going, coaches! ...and "Thank You" to the guys & girls over there!

[The Prowler 1]

Man, that's freakin' Awesome...."Got a calendar?" LMAO

Sweet, Courtney Taylor is in the Navy now? Cool.

[IndyTiger 3]

I have never in my entire life heard of someone from Indiana being called an Indianan. This guy seems like a complete idiot. How is he sports writer and he doesn't know about Hoosiers?