There has been a lot of talk recently on the message boards about former coaches who left Florida State and where they might rank. The name of former Florida State offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Wayne McDuffie has been mentioned frequently in these discussions.

McDuffie left FSU after the 1989 season to go to the Atlanta Falcons. He had coached there for one year previously, in 1981 I believe. At that time Jerry Glanville was the defensive coordinator. When Glanville got the Houston Oilers job he constantly called Coach Mac in an attempt to gauge his interest in returning to the NFL. He always turned down Glanville's overtures because he didn't want to go to Houston. When Glanville got the Atlanta job he called once again, and this time McDuffie said yes.

After a year in Atlanta, McDuffie was offered the offensive coordinator/offensive line/assistant head coach job at the University of Georgia and he took it. He had won a national championship there coaching the lines that blocked for Herschel Walker. I think he always wanted to be a head coach and he felt that would be the best path for him to achieve that goal.

As far as his coaching, McDuffie could be a complete bastard and rarely as a player did you get to see a different side of him. He was one of those guys that you really couldn't stand playing for, yet after it was all over you looked back and knew you were better for having been coached by him. I never got along with him but always had the utmost respect for him as a coach because he was just so good at it.

It was interesting that a few years after I was done playing I ran into his wife and she told me that she knew he and I didn't get along, but that he always thought a lot of me. It just wasn't in his personality to show that to anyone.

McDuffie was a complete technical nut. The smaller the detail the more it needed to be focused upon. For example, he was a strong proponent of not tipping your hand as a lineman by the stance you took. Too much weight going forward on the fingers and hand meant a run. Too much weight back on the heels meant a pass. If he could see it on film he knew defensive linemen lined up inches away could see it even better. To him the only acceptable time to give away the play by the stance of his line was in obvious passing situations. Watch an offensive line, any offensive line at any level, and you can guess run or pass by looking at the stance of the linemen.

He believed that you only got better at something by repetition. And when I say repetition, only someone who played for McDuffie can understand the extent that I mean. And when it came time to produce, you got the job done using the proper technique or someone else would do it in your place. It wasn't too out of the realm of possibilities for someone to get demoted for taking the wrong step. Whether the assignment you carried out in the end was correct or not didn't matter. What did matter was how you ultimately got to that assignment. As he said many times over the years, talent wins football games, but proper technique is the only way to beat equal talent.

Every segment met with their coach before practice. The offensive line meeting started at 2:00 every day (practice wasn't until 3:30). The meetings weren't in a meeting room, they were in what we called the mini-gym (a part of what was to become the weight room). It was a half-gym whose floor was covered with a wrestling mat. A typical meeting started with everyone doing 125 sit-ups. After that players went through about 45 minutes to an hour of strict technique and fundamental work. The rest of the meeting would consist of watching film of the prior day's practice. Meetings were so intense it wasn't uncommon for a player to lose 3-4 pounds in a meeting alone.

As far as size, McDuffie wanted his linemen smaller and quicker. He was so intense and he knew his offensive lines reflected his personality, so he knew no defensive front, regardless of size, would play more physical. His 265-pound offensive linemen would whip any 280-pound defensive linemen out there. What he didn't want to see was one of his players get beat because they weren't quick enough.

The toss sweep was the featured play of the offense back then. It was a play that in the mid to late '80s FSU averaged 7 yards per carry every time it was run. McDuffie wanted to make sure his guard wouldn't get beat to the corner by the tailback or, worse yet, by the strong safety. Each player had a prescribed weight and it wasn't advisable to be over that weight by even a pound.

The question as to how the current FSU offensive line would perform under the tutelage of McDuffie is a difficult one. The offensive line play was always solid and never a question mark under Coach Mac, yet he had very few players advance to the NFL during his tenure at FSU. I don't believe that every guy out there could play for a guy like McDuffie. The coaching staff had to recruit guys they felt could adjust to his coaching style. They judged correctly more times than not. Certainly the talent is available along the offensive line at FSU right now. It will be interesting to see how many of the five seniors to be are drafted in April by the NFL. With that kind of talent there is no reason that they shouldn't be a dominant group in the 2002 season.

Talk about it on the

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