Organization, attention to detail
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Vicknair sent Bruchhaus to learn from longtime Georgia defensive coordinator Erk Russell. Russell later coached at Georgia Southern, where Bruchhaus picked up some things from Paul Johnson, who would become a successful offensive-minded head coach at Navy, Georgia Southern and Georgia Tech.
Johnson was one example of what Vicknair looked for from coaches he wanted his assistants to learn from: He had something, something different, or a creative way of doing things Vicknair appreciated.
Decades later, Johnson would become the talk of college football, confounding opposing defenses with a triple-option offense he called the flexbone, which Vanderbilt coach Bobby Johnson raved about in the Sports Illustrated issue of Nov. 16, 2009: “There is no way to figure it out,” Johnson said.
Johnson has defenses scrambling to learn his offense, and it’s a good bet he’s already working on staying a step or two ahead of them. That’s the kind of coach Vicknair wanted his staff to mine for strategic gold.
One thing Bruchhaus noticed was how important it was to watch what was called “film” in those days and is now video in one form or another. When Bruchhaus was on site learning about a team’s offense or defense, he’d watch all their games on film, then watch their practices.
“It wasn’t about talking,” Bruchhaus said, “it was about looking.”
Vicknair called him into his office and said they were going to sit down and watch film of an opponent. Vicknair asked what the team was going to do on first-and-10. Bruchhaus said he didn’t know. Vicknair asked what they were going to do on third-and-short. Bruchhaus said he didn’t know, and Vicknair gave him a new assignment.
“He said, ‘Well, you’d better go watch some film, and when you can do that (tell me what they’re going to do), you need to come back and let me know.’”
Bruchhaus said he learned the art of studying film.
“You get a feel for it,” he said.
Years after leaving the coaching profession, he said he didn’t know how good an X-and-O coach he was, but he was pretty sure he knew how to call a game. That, he said, came from film study.
It’s a trait Vicknair had, and it was invaluable at Westlake, where his insights from the press box helped the Rams win games right up until the night before he died.
“He taught people how to break down another team’s offense,” Caldarera said. “He was very good at it. He could call a team’s plays.”
The Rams beat Sam Houston on Vicknair’s last night, and Caldarera said Vicknair could call the plays and know what was going to happen when the Broncos had the ball.
“When Vic broke you down, he knew exactly what a team was going to do against him,” Caldarera said.
Striving for perfection was the way Caldarera remembered Vicknair being most consistent. Westlake’s 14-1 season in 2007, Caldarera said, owed a great deal to “him being on top of the press box calling the game down, and to the kicking game.”
Vicknair was in charge of the kicking game too.
It was rare for a high school head coach to have someone with Vicknair’s experience and knowledge working for him as an assistant coach, and Caldarera knew and appreciated it.
All of the coaches who knew Vicknair appreciated his attention to detail.
He watched spring practices at McNeese. He watched the spring game. He attended McNeese clinics. He didn’t want to just watch practice; he wanted a copy of the practice script. Viator learned to make a few extra copies every day, just in case Vicknair showed up to watch.
“He’d walk out there on the practice field and say, ‘Where’s my script?’ You had to be ready because he could be there and he’d want it there,” Viator said.
When Nick Saban was coach at LSU, Viator and Vicknair would attend practices in Baton Rouge when they could. Viator said Vicknair loved Saban’s practices and the way he organized them.
Saban, who was extreme in protecting anything he thought should stay within the walls of the athletic department and the football practice facility, wasn’t the sort of person to make extra copies of scripts for visitors. Viator said Vicknair put the pressure on him to come through, and as luck would have it, there was a connection there.
Mike Collins, a once and future McNeese assistant, was on Saban’s staff at LSU in 2003 and ‘04. A script found its way into Vicknair’s hands, and when he and Viator were looking it over, one of Saban’s practice spies pounced on them.
Sam Nader, a longtime liaison between high school coaches and LSU’s football program, saved them. Nader said he could vouch for them. Viator said he likes to remind Collins, who became one of Viator’s assistants when he returned to McNeese, that he didn’t throw Collins under the bus. He didn’t say where they got the script.
Collins remembered the incident, and he recalled Vicknair’s interest in the practices.
“He was curious about Nick’s defense,” he said.
If Vicknair and Saban were both perfectionists, Saban didn’t appear to enjoy himself as much as Vicknair did. A few hours after LSU won the 2003 BCS national championship, Saban was in his hotel room in New Orleans fretting about the next season. His agent, Jimmy Sexton, noted he didn’t seem able to savor the moment.
After Westlake lost the 2007 state championship game in the same Superdome, Vicknair was able to let go and enjoy the rest of the weekend in New Orleans, one of his favorite cities. His wife suggested his age (65) had something to do with that, that if he’d been the same age Saban was (52) in 2003, it might have taken him longer to get over the defeat.
But it wasn’t lost on those who knew both that Saban had a harder time enjoying a championship than Vicknair did in walking away from a championship loss and enjoying the company of those around him.
Shaver, who was on Vicknair’s staff at Barbe when the Bucs lost the 1980 state championship to East St. John, saw plenty of Vicknair’s serious side. There was no joking on the practice field, Shaver said.
“It was business,” Shaver said. “He was prepared. He made sure we were prepared. He made sure we took care of that. He made every practice schedule. He assigned every person what to do.”
Shaver learned that was Vicknair’s way, so he quit talking about it and just did what Vicknair told him.
“Now,” Shaver said before the 2009 season, “things are a lot different. I have an offensive supervisor, a defensive supervisor, and I just tell them the time (of practice).
“Vic was in control of everything. He’d let you know if you were doing it wrong.”
Vicknair’s sons saw evidence of their father’s attention to detail.
“A lot of coaches would send younger coaches to go get films” on upcoming opponents, Cody Vicknair said. “He did it for years, way past when he needed to. He’d do the small things. He was big on taking care of uniforms.”
Viator worked for Vicknair for three years at Sam Houston before becoming head coach at Vinton. Later, when Viator coached at Jennings, they traded practices. If Jennings had a day off, Viator would watch Sam Houston practice. If Sam Houston had a day off, Vicknair would watch Jennings practice.
They did this despite the schools being scheduled to play each other during the season.
Viator said Vicknair would tell him what looked good and what needed more work, despite knowing he’d have to coach against Viator during the season. He was always there to help, Viator said. He was always honest.
“That’s who he was, and I always appreciated that because he was trying to help us,” Viator said. “If you were loyal to him, he was loyal to you to no end, and I always appreciated that fact.”
Vicknair’s search for perfection wasn’t limited to his team. There was always something he could find on another team that needed improving.
“We won the state championship at Jennings,” Viator said, “and the next day — we had stayed over (in New Orleans) — I saw he and my dad were talking, and we were just kind of shooting the bull or whatever, and Coach Vic said, ‘I wanted to tell you this for a few weeks, but let me tell you: You’d better learn how to punt. Y’all don’t have a clue, and you got lucky that y’all won, and if you’re going to do this, your punter’s this,’ and ... he got all over me.”
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