FOOTBALL: The Backus era set to begin
A new Ram in Town
In his 13th season, Randy Backus began his first week as head coach at Temple City High School.
Question: Are the Rams talented enough to win a Rio Hondo League and CIF title this season? And how good can Will Do be?
Temple City, Backus off to a fresh start
By Scott Galetti
Staff Writer
Article Launched: 08/23/2007 12:59:41 AM PDT
TEMPLE CITY - Something was different when Temple City High School opened workouts on Monday.
Different because Mike Mooney wasn't there.
The former coach left during the offseason to become assistant principal at San Marino after leading the Rams to a 10-2 record and No. 1 seed in the CIF-Southern Section Mid Valley Division before being eliminated in the second
While some things were different, there was one constant - Randy Backus.
Backus is entering his 13th year at the school and first as head coach.
On Wednesday, Backus and his team continued preseason workouts for the season opener at Arroyo on Sept. 7.
For Backus, it's been quite a learning experience.
"There's a lot more administrative stuff than I anticipated," Backus said. "More organizing."
Organization on the field is something Backus is quite familiar with after working closely with Mooney.
Mooney's departure came at an awkward time for Backus, but he's been able to work his way around it.
"It was difficult at the beginning because I wasn't around until after spring football," Backus said.
The players are getting used to Backus' style.
"I like playing for coach Backus," Rams senior running Will Do said. "He really helps us out individually, trying to be a more personal coach."
All-Rio Hondo League first-team lineman Eric Becher feels the transition has gone smoothly.
"He likes to keep it fast and short and gets straight to the point, so I think he's a great coach," Becher said. "It's not much of a difference from Mooney because they worked together for years."
A RAM IN THE BACKFIELD
With the departure of running back Dwight Broadnax (2,181 yards, 22 touchdowns last season), the spotlight will shine on Do, a first-team All-Rio Hondo League defensive selection at linebacker.
The punishing back rushed for 366 yards and four touchdowns in 2006.
"Will just needs to be Will," Backus said.
Joining Do will be junior Morgan Hatch, who is battling with senior Sebastian Orozco for the starting quarterback position.
A tough nonleague schedule should get the Rams ready for the Rio Hondo League grind.
After Arroyo, Temple City will host Alhambra and San Gabriel. The Rams then will travel to Rosemead before closing out their nonleague campaign at home against La Salle.
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Melendez worked as a correspondent for the San Gabriel Valley Tribune for three years and later landed a job as a freelance writer at the Los Angeles Times before accepting an offer at The Orange County Register covering high schools. Melendez covered Major League Soccer at The Register for three years before being promoted to report on the Lakers, Angels and Dodgers for the Web. Melendez also worked for the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Fresno Bee, Oakland Tribune and The Boston Globe. E-mail opinions, suggestions and tips to miguel.melendez@sgvn.com. |
Too much talent can be a curse for some teams...Not sure why.
The real HSFGFAN
I agree 100% with you. I sometimes think that coach Garrison doesn't know what to do with all of skill positions and starts to play into the hands of TC. We could run reverses all day long on TC or screen pass them to death an open up our passing game and take the score out of wack but Garrison chooses to run up the middle 85% of the time. I remember when the wildcats ran the option with Moore in at Qb and all TC saw as dust. I hope that Garrison figures out how to stick to his game and not try and match TC's style of play.
TC beat arcadia, when playing, 2 times in 12 years of play, 1997 and 2001. Mooney couldn't handle it anymore and scheduled Glendale and La Salle.
What does that tell you with monrovia?
Monrovia, on paper, should handle TC like paper dolls, but they always beat themselves, and TC capitalizes by playing smart football and protecting the ball. I really believe it's more mental for Monrovia than anything else.
Are you saying that Arcadia would have beat TC?..The fact is we will never no. Duarte Came very close several times but coulnd't pull it off. But you do recall the 75-0 Monrovia-Alhambra meeting dont you?......I'm sure that got Tc's attention back then not to schedual teams with running backs....they never played Muir PHS. Monrovia or even Blair for that matter...so for the situation they were in it was perfect. I think their schedule went somthing like, El Monte, San Gabriel, San Marino, Duarte, tiauna....etc....
Are you saying Iron Mike McLellen would have ran us over? Are you conceeding the TC argument and now switching to Arcadia?
when will Monrovia Fans realize, no matter how good they feel they are on paper, they'll never be great. There is no way they would have beat the TC teams of the Hitchcock era and this is coming from an Apache.. Yes Monrovia has beat the apaches recently (as well they should), but there's no way that in the late 70's early 80's the Cats would have been victorious over the Apaches, just NO WAY
Do you remember the Alhambra-Monrovia Score that year?....75-0 Monrovia. Alhambra was supposed to be hosting the CIFs greatest defensive but Monrovia ran all over them that evening. So as Far as TC was and is Concern they should be thankful that they did'nt play the Wildcats during those 70 years. By the way they did apply the Mercy rule after the 3rd quarter of that game. Dont believe it look it up....
I suppose all TC faithful need now is to go down to San Clemente and convince Mushinski (sp?) to move his family back and then head up to Santa Clarita and then out to Rancho Cucamonga as well and plead for all the old families to move back to TC.
Observantcat
Your observations are routinely excellent, but your history of the 70's and Hitchcock is a bit off. It was the 2A and 4A layout as you describe. However, the largest crowd in Moor Field history was the TC -Alhambra match up of 1974. For TC, It was the pivotal game to tie or break the California consecutive win record. Alhambra had just won the Watts Summer Games passing tournament, had 22 returning lettermen and were ranked 4th in CIF. AHS went up 14 zip, but TC made adjustments, found weaknesses and in the ol TC fundamental way, prevailed 35-14. Their primary offensive weapon was Rick Brown, a bruising and elusive dude - slicing left/right behind a schooled O-line. A good program will prevail no matter the geography- as was witnessed in the 3 decades afterward.
Real
Of Course we could have beaten you guys as did we teams that were much better than you guys...Remember the schools were divided into just 4 Divisions 1A,2A,3A, and of course 4A, you guys were a 2Ateam who never played any 3A or 4A teams. You were the LaSalle's of today. There were several of those golden 70's years that we would have put a real dent in your program had your coach and one of my neighbors (Hitchcock) agreed to play. I guess if you really look at it Monrovia has the best winnning record on you guys as of this date and climbing. We were Much Bigger and much better then than we are now, the discipline could be in question but the athletisism was far greater. You guys would'nt have stood a chance to teams like Bishop Amat Or even West Torrance back in those days but Monrovia did play them and prevail. Dont get me wrong TC had a great run but I think they would have taken a slow walk had they come face to face with the Wildcats back then. It's a shame that we will never really know but Guys like Marvin Holmes, Dale Bunn, Pat Craner, Rick Wilmoth etc..are legends at MHS. Pat Craner was the Firs White Guy to win State in the 100 yrd.Dash and in 73 MHS won State in track & field. You guys had no athletes that could come close to some of these accomplishments.
Real
Of Course we could have beaten you guys as did we teams that were much better than you guys...Remember the schools were divided into just 4 Divisions 1A,2A,3A, and of course 4A, you guys were a 2Ateam who never played any 3A or 4A teams. You were the LaSalle's of today. There were several of those golden 70's years that we would have put a real dent in your program had your coach and one of my neighbors (Hitchcock) agreed to play. I guess if you really look at it Monrovia has the best winnning record on you guys as of this date and climbing. We were Much Bigger and much better then than we are now, the discipline could be in question but the athletisism was far greater. You guys would'nt have stood a chance to teams like Bishop Amat Or even West Torrance back in those days but Monrovia did play them and prevail. Dont get me wrong TC had a great run but I think they would have taken a slow walk had they come face to face with the Wildcats back then. It's a shame that we will never really know but Guys like Marvin Holmes, Dale Bunn, Pat Craner, Rick Wilmoth etc..are legends at MHS. Pat Craner was the Firs White Guy to win State in the 100 yrd.Dash and in 73 MHS won State in track & field. You guys had no athletes that could come close to some of these accomplishments.
O-Cat
You actually think that monrovia could have beaten TC during the hitchcock era when they put together that ridiculously long winning streak... at the time the longest in the country... you're even more deluded than i thought you were
O-Cat,
Did you say defense? Nice. Is Rycroft back? Is coach Brown back? Those two guys had strong defensive teams.
There's that word again O-Cat, should. Old School, Mooney turned a lot of "shoulds" into "have dones." The only criticism of Mooney's philosophy I have was that I thought he should have worked on his passing game more. BUT, his passing game worked well against Monrovia last year (the few times they passed.)
Old School Ram
Those were TC's Glory Days. The league was a lot different back then and they never had to face a Monrovia team year after year, Duarte was the team back then that could not pull of the wins against TC. As Wildcats back then we were wishing for the day that we could play TC and show them that they were very beatable back then just like they are now. As an old school Wildcat I see the talent pool getting ever so strong at MHS and going the other way at TC even with the much more outspoken Head Coach. It is going to get more frustrating for him as he trys to convert linemen into running backs and have to make 20-30 point comebacks in the second half of games. I'm just keeping it real for all of the fans Observing the two teams. I know that haveing a great line can mean a world of difference when an opposing defense has several week spots, but what I see at Monrovia is the new focus on the Defense, it already has a great offense. As for having two great Backs at MHS last year..They will be considered meadiocore in comparison to the new Backs that are on the rise this year and the coming years...I dont see where the psychology is in trying to match these element. If Monrovia High Schools Defense improves and plays like we know it can, nobody should stand in the way of a few CIF championships....Monrovia fans will no longer accept second fiddle and we will play like champions against any of our opponents til the end.....
New York,
You did a nice job breaking down TC's losses in the playoffs during the Mooney era sometime ago. Building on the recent post regarding complacency within the program, I agree. Mooney always wanted league titles not CIF titles. Backus will rescue the program from mediocrity and restore the Hitchcock philosophy.
Early playoff elimination and a silent bus ride home is a crappy ending to anyone's season. In some cases it was an overachievement just to get there and OK to raise a glass to celebrate that. On the other hand, if you get seeded with a beatable first rounder...you best find a way to win
Goldenarm,
When you're right, you're right. And I am tired of these mediocre 7,8 and 9 win seasons. I don't think my expectations are too high. I feel like we win 9 when we can win 12, or 6 when it can be 9, etc.
So why hasn't Temple City cracked the semis since 1998? I feel like you guys are perfectly happy beating Monrovia and winning league, similar to the terry donahue era at ucla. He always talked about beating sc and going to the rose bowl. No mention of national titles.
Raminsider,
It is not back vs back and QB vs QB. It is O vs D and D vs O. We did have some good backs last year, but we also had a soft defense. I'm sure how offense could have scored at will against our defense as well, especially the night we played Temple City.
If we are talking cars, I'm perfectly content riding in the back of a Lincoln to and from the office/airport/whatever...if we talk football, I sure respect a guy like Do who goes both ways at collision (not just contact) positions. I also respect his coaches for knowing he can do it.
New York,
maybe a greater emphasis on fundamentals and preparation would mean a couple undefeated seasons..with the recurring talent you mention - one would expect dominance and not mediocrity...not that a league crown is anything to scoff at
please stop seriously didnt u say all the same stuff for like the past two years? and what happened a whoopin' exactly and to all the tc players on the blog stop bragging too show it on the field i know you can. and o cat dont u remember will tearing you guys up last year? when u supposedly had 2 "great" backs?
Woah O-Cat,
I own a Buick and me and Tiger Woods will take a Buick over a Cadillac any day of the week.
Goldenarm,
SOS every year on the talent side of the equation at Monrovia. Some years are just better at different positions. The really special years we have enough talent that to mitigate recurring mistakes agaist 13 out of 14 teams on the schedule.
It is a long road until Nov 8 at Monrovia, but
Observantcat is not blowing smoke about the Monrovia freshman class from last year. Multiple speed burners as well as size and aggresiveness. Migrating to the Pacific League is not hype either. TC defense is going to be formidable this year, but unless Monrovia implodes with dissention and turnovers, how do you counter being surrounded by TD threats at every offensive skill position?
Backus will not be looking this far ahead anyway. Will Do will rip regardless, those who underestimate him do so at their own peril. TC vs Alhambra match up will speak volumes...
sorry to say that the cowbell will always be at la salle...the jimenez family (as in augi jr and alex) are longtime lancers
good luck to daniel in the upcoming season!
one thing i always say is, on paper doesnt really mean that much... sure, it gives you an idea of whats to come, but it cant predict a win... if that was the case, shouldn't have monrovia won the RHL last year? Monrovia seems to always have a pretty good roster right? But ummm, why dont they win year after year then?
So true TC Player. Thanks for helping us refocus on taking things back to the DiFiori and Soumakian coaching eras.
he isnt related to Augi Jr. or Alex, and Monrovia is a joke, every year they have a great roster, too bad football isnt something u play on paper like tic tac toe. Good roster means a bigger party for TC when we kick their butts come RHL Championship time, don't believe me? look at the past 2 years.
I'm sorry TC fans...A buick still cant out perform a Cadillac...Monrovia has a couple of Cadillacs, and a Ferrari sitting in it's driveway. And this is just the beggining, You guys are going to have 4 years of pure Hell...with all of the Monrovia players coming back, not to mention the new crop of freshman this year......So if you are going to make a run please try and do it this year because the rest are all OURS...... In reallity they should just take Monrovia out of the league and put them in the Pacific for the next 4 years....and I'm not just saying that because I know we're good just look at the Roster this year and Wonder how a Majority Sophmore & Junior team could win the RHL....
Is Daniel Jiminez related to Alex and Augi Jiminez? Will CrazyQ support TC this year?
it is true Morgan hatch is the starting Qb and Sebastian orozco will be starting at wide-out with Danile Jimenez. Will is great but he gets to do what he does becasue he has someone like FullBack josh willard leading him thru the holes.
how good is will do? how good is a player who is lighting quick blistering fast and comes thru a hole like a buick. the boy has got it all size speed agiltiy and the work ethic. i feel bad for the first idiot who thinks it is safe to go heads up with him.
TC VARSITY IS GONNA KILL THIS YEAR!!!!
just to make it clear, morgan is the starting QB and C-Bass is a reciever this year...
Will this be a Belicheck / Parcells unveiling?
GO C-BASS!!!!
Backus was a great Defensive coach, he'll take the Rams to where they need to be. Go Backus, Go Rams, this town supports you and the team.
Good wording in the question this time.