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[50's PONY]

Ross believes in Army mission

By JACK WILKINSON
Cox News Service
Sunday, September 05, 2004


WEST POINT, N.Y. — The minute he walked in the room, they could tell he was a coach of distinction. A real big-timer. Yet of all the Army football players sitting in Washington Hall on Dec. 9, none recognized the man and the significance of his arrival quite like Will Sullivan and Dhyan Tarver.

"Coach Ross walked in and I said, 'That's amazing,' " said Sullivan, a senior defensive tackle from Dunwoody, Ga. who played at Marist and immediately recognized Bobby Ross. He'd grown up with a poster of Ross and his 1990 Georgia Tech national championship team adorning his bedroom wall. "I didn't believe that Coach Ross was actually here until I saw him."

"I thought, 'Are you serious? Oh my God!' " said Tarver, a junior safety from San Antonio whose parents — Michigan State alumni and fanatic Detroit sports fans — ordered DirecTV to watch the Lions play. They never missed a game when Barry Sanders, the NFL's No. 2 career rusher, once ran wild for the Lions and, in 1997-98, for Ross.

"Barry Sanders is my favorite player," Tarver said. "This is my idol, and having his actual coach come here leaves me in awe. I just thought, 'He's Coach Bobby Ross. He's so high up there. Why would he want to come here?' "

Why, indeed? Last season, Army became the first Division I-A team to finish 0-13 and was outscored 476-206. The Cadets were 1-24 the past two years and led the nation in turnovers each season (44 last year alone). Why would a 67-year-old grandfather of 15, who won a national title at Tech and took San Diego to its only Super Bowl, give up a cushy, three-year retirement in Virginia to attempt an about-face for Army football?

"I feel like I have a very good fit here," Ross said, sitting in his office overlooking Michie Stadium and munching pretzels that, like the football program, had gone stale. "I have a military back- ground."


A military family

Ross attended a military high school, graduated from VMI in 1959, served as a first lieutenant in the Army from 1960-62 and was head coach at The Citadel from 1973-77. One son, Chris, is a 1984 Air Force Academy graduate. Another, Kevin, graduated from Annapolis in '88, served with the Marines in Operation Desert Storm and is now his dad's offensive coordinator and running backs coach.

And somewhere, Leonard Ross is smiling. "I have an opportunity to fulfill my father's dream," Ross said when he was introduced three days after Army's 34-6 loss to Navy. Leonard Ross received an appointment to West Point during the Depression, but he had to decline it and go to work as a railroad freight clerk to help support his family.

Now his son goes to work here each day with a five-year contract worth $700,000 annually (most of it raised by alumni), nearly three times the salary of predecessor Todd Berry, who was 5-35 before being fired in midseason last year. Yet it's neither the money nor his military background that prompted Ross to take what he says is his last coaching job.

Yes, he'd grown bored and missed coaching. "You get tired of walking the dog," Ross said. Asked to serve on a search committee to help find the new coach, Ross told Army he was interested in the job himself. Once Frank Solich declined the job, Ross, who coached the Detroit Lions from 1997 until midway through 2000 before quitting for health reasons, eagerly accepted. Even Alice Ross urged her husband, "This is the place." Ross genuinely believes in West Point, Army football and its larger mission.

"I tell the players, and I really believe this: 'I don't think Dallas is "America's Team." ' I think we are," said Ross. "I think people want to see us be successful. In this day and time, more people are relating to the military and feeling good about it, as opposed to post-Vietnam."


Representing the corps

Superintendent William J. Lennox, who hired Ross, feels "the spirit of the corps rises and falls with the football team." Pete Dawkins, Army's last Heisman Trophy winner in 1958, says it's essential that the football team — and, by extension, West Point — be viewed as successful.

"We know we represent the whole Army," Tarver said. "In Iraq, [the military] still follow our games on the radio. A lot of the old football players live and die with us."

Ross [94-76-2 as a college coach, with three ACC titles at Maryland, and 77-68 in the NFL] gave Army instant credibility in recruiting. He not only plans to restore Army to respectability, but to win consistently, get periodic bowl bids, perhaps even . . . contend nationally?

"I still believe it could happen," Ross told USA Today. "They can call me insane if they want. If you get on a streak and get hot, it can be done."

Ross' first Tech team was 2-9 in 1987, his second 3-8, his fourth 11-0-1 and the 1990 UPI national champion. Yet Army's fatigue in football is extreme. The Cadets' last winning season: 10-2 in 1996 under Bob Sutton. Last year, in a pass-oriented one-back set, they averaged 63.5 yards rushing.

"Rock bottom, that's where we're working from right now," Ross said. "But it's only been recently that we hit rock bottom. That's partly why I changed the uniforms."


Changing look, attitude

They're throwback uniforms to the mid-1940s, when Earl "Red" Blaik's 1944-45-46 teams went 27-0-1 and won three national championships: Solid gold pants, no longer a black stripe down the side, and three stripes on each arm of the jerseys. At least in appearance, Ross' Cadets will resemble those of running backs Doc Blanchard and Glenn Davis, who won the Heisman in '45 and '46, respectively.

"I wanted our squad to be reminded every time they put that uniform on that this program has been successful in the past," Ross said. "What better reminder than the game uniform we're wearing? There's a tradition of winning here."

From 1983-90, Army had six winning seasons under coach Jim Young and won two of its three bowl games. But, Ross said, "Losing had set in. Dealing with a losing attitude is the most difficult thing, and what takes the longest to turn around."

Ross understands the rigors his players face here, with the academic and military demands "down the hill." That's West Point parlance for Cadet life, literally on the low ground of this breathtaking campus. "Up the hill" means football at Michie Stadium, which sits on the high ground overlooking the Hudson River. For Ross, "up the hill" means football as serious business.

"This isn't an escape for them," he said. "I don't want them to see it as that. It's very important. It's going to take just as much of a commitment up here as it is down there. I expect a real strong commitment, not just a contribution."

Ross instituted an intense offseason strength training and conditioning program, knowing player development is crucial at a service academy ("We aren't going to get the five-star, four-star players"). He got some concessions from the administration to help players maintain their conditioning during summer military training. "In the past, everybody always thought, 'They're going through a 13-mile march in full gear. Oh, they're in great shape,' " Ross said. "They're not even close to football shape."

Those programs take place in the new Kimsey Athletic Center, which houses the football program and state-of-the-art strength development and athletic training centers. Kimsey, and considerable renovations to Michie Stadium, were paid for by $65 million in privately raised funds.

Service academies are not limited by NCAA scholarship rules, so Ross brought in 72 freshmen; 36 are attending the USMAPS prep school in New Jersey. For now, though, Ross has an undersized team (particularly on the defensive front) that lacks overall speed (especially at wide receiver), depth at running back and a proven quarterback.

He'll employ a two-back, pro-style offense but run the option, which Young used splendidly in the '80s and which Air Force and now Navy thrive on. "It's a little more of an equalizer [in talent]," Ross said.

Mostly, Ross hopes for instant improvement in the won-lost record through traditional values: Attitude. Character. Toughness. Loyalty. Hard work. Conditioning. Fewer turnovers and penalties. Better field position and third-down and red-zone percentages.

After this season, Army will leave Conference USA and play as an independent, enabling the Cadets to play a more reasonable yet national schedule (including a two-game series with Georgia Tech) and help recruiting nationally. Yet Army already believes big-time in Bobby Ross, its real big-timer. His opener seems almost perfectly scripted: C-USA favorite Louisville, in Michie Stadium, on . . . Sept. 11.

"We believe in the system, and we believe in Coach Ross," said Tarver. "We're going to win this year. What Coach Ross says is the golden word."

"Come September 11th," Sullivan said, "we know we're going to destroy Louisville."


Jack Wilkinson writes for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

[NavyCrimson]

great article - it would be nice to see the army back in the top 25 some day!