I was really glad to be able to share that great photo from David Akin in the last post. It got me to thinking … I wonder what the field looked like years before that. I contacted Dave Hume, the 1961 Wildman Trophy winner, and he forwarded me several older photos. These are photographs of the newspaper clippings and pictures that Coach Tom Mooney‘s wife had kept in a scrapbook of his Guelph years, 1957-61. The team was still known as the OAC-OVC Redmen at the time. The August 1957 clipping from The Daily Mercury shows the field nearing its completion at the current location.
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WRT Recruiting … if I’m not mistaken, the University’s final Offers of Admission have already been, or very soon will be, sent out. Prospective student-athletes who have committed to Guelph have a deadline to accept those offers. There isn’t often much news about this part of the process.
Last year, 36 of the 37 announced recruits were admitted, enrolled, came to training camp and became roster players. That is highly unusual. Even Guelph coaches were surprised that not a single freshman quit during training camp. Some of our OUA rivals had lost over 40% of their recruits somewhere between the admissions process and the end of training camp. 
With an even larger recruiting class I’ll be interested to see if we can come close to last season’s rate of success.
Some time ago I asked Recruiting Coordinator Bill Brown if he would consider answering some questions about the 2012 recruiting class and the process of putting it together. He didn’t hesitate to say yes, so I will follow-up on that ASAP and hopefully post the results on the blog soon.
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I also need to get the series on Todd Galloway’s offense back on track. The original post on the topic – The Gryphon offense – Todd Galloway version, Part 1 – was back on January 2. I’d suggest you re-read at least the bottom 40%, everything from the diagram on down. The way that Galloway uses his inside receivers, X and Y (& the H-back), is quite different from what coaches Walters and Marchese did. This offense also requires a different type of athlete at those positions than previously. I understand some of this better now that I’ve seen the type of offensive players that were recruited at specific positions.
There is hardly a team these days that doesn’t use a spread formation as some part of their offense. But using a spread formation is not the same as having a spread offense. I like the distinctions that Chris Brown of Smart Football makes between a spread formation and a true Spread offense. To distinguish the pure Spread O, Brown sometimes calls them spread-to-run offenses. The best examples are some U.S. college teams, particularly Oregon, Auburn (under OC Gus Malzahn), Clemson (under OC Chad Morris), and any team coached by Rich Rodriguez in the last dozen years (Clemson, West Virginia & Michigan).
By the way, I did come up with ways to produce better diagrams. I just hope I can remember them. The Gryphon offense – Todd Galloway version, Part 2 coming up soon.
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I would encourage all Gryphon supporters in Niagara to come out on Friday, June 1 to the Pasta Fundraiser for John Rush/ Team Canada at the Stamford Lions Hall @ 3846 Portage Road, Niagara Falls. Tickets for the dinner are only $10. Proceeds go to assist the Rush family with the substantial costs for John to play for Team Canada at the World Junior Championships in Austin, Texas next month. There will be a silent auction. Tickets will be available at the door.
Gryphons Football Blog 