"John Rauch wanted to show what he could do, so he left Oakland and came to Buffalo. The Bills did improve- to a 4-10 record from 1-12-1- but Rauch, of course, feels it could have been much better.
'The difference between winning and losing a few more games was in the mental errors more than in physical shortcomings,' he says. 'When you make the mental mistake, you're beating yourself. And that's what we did too frequently.' His biggest problem is finding a regular, steady quarterback- and if there is one Rauch knows something about, it's quarterbacking. When he was 19 and a freshman at the University of Georgia, he became the first-string varsity quarterback. He led the Bulldogs into the Oil, Sugar, Gator and Orange Bowls in his four years. He was also mentioned on several All-American teams in 1949, his senior year.
Rauch had always wanted to be a coach, so he spent only two years as a pro quarterback before returning to college to coach football at the University of Florida in 1951. He remained in the college ranks until 1963 when he joined Oakland as an assistant coach. He moved up to the head coach's position in 1966 and his success with the Raiders is history. One of the things he developed at Oakland was a quarterback named Daryle Lamonica, who, by the way, was obtained from the Buffalo Bills.
After finding, or settling on, a quarterback, Rauch has to impose his system successfully on the Bills. They have had a year to work with it and have found it demanding, but Rauch says, 'I know it's the kind of system with which a team can win. And we expect to do more winning in 1970.'"
-Brenda and Jack Zanger, Pro Football 1970
No comments:
Post a Comment