Sunday, August 25, 2002
Kehres shares reasons for his team's success
Mount Union preview: Purple Raiders remain a power
The Associated Press
Mount Union football coach Larry Kehres has a secret. He knows how to beat his Purple Raiders, but he's taking the Fifth.
“I don't want to tell anybody,” he said with a laugh.
Why would he? Kehres has made a living out of pummeling the opposition, compiling a 178-17-3 record in 16 seasons at Mount Union.
Although he won't discuss specific plays and schemes that could confound his team, Kehres is willing to share some of the reasons why the Purple Raiders win year after year.
“As a coach, your job is to adjust to the ability of your players,” Kehres said. “The challenge as coaches is to be flexible, bend and be molded by the talents your players have. We haven't played the same style every year.”
That seems simple. And it has worked.
No team at any level can match Mount Union's success over the past decade. The Purple Raiders' run includes:
Winning six of the last nine national titles and the last 10 Ohio Conference championships.
An NCAA-record 54-game winning streak from 1996-99; their current 28-game winning streak is the longest in the nation.
Seven consecutive undefeated regular seasons; 99-1 in the regular season since 1992.
Victories in 82 of their last 83 games, including 74 straight in the regular season and 35 in a row on the road.
College football's best winning percentage (.941) and most wins (120) in the 1990s.
“I think the best approach the coach can take is to do the same things in preparation for every game, so your players can count on your approach week in and week out,” Kehres said. “We expect consistency from them. We expect them to be on an even keel. If I want that from them, I think I have to deliver that myself.”
The last man to lead his team to a victory over Mount Union said the Purple Raiders win because Kehres is a genius who always has his players prepared.
“They have great talent, but Larry does a couple of things as well as anyone I've seen,” said former Rowan coach K.C.Keeler, now the head coach at Delaware. “The consistency his guys play with game in and game out and, offensively, he's a master of adjustment. I've never seen a guy recognize how you're going to defend him and then make adjustments to negate those things. It's an art form. The guy is a brilliant coach.”
Kehres doesn't like to take the credit. He praises his players, simply saying, “We have good people.”
But it's how he gets them that is so impressive, according to John Carroll coach Regis Scafe.
He said other schools in the Ohio Conference lose players who would rather spend two years on the bench learning from Kehres than playing right away somewhere else.
“We have a really good program, too, but we just haven't won the national championship,” Scafe said. “You have to be at that level. We sell, "We're going to try to win that championship.”'
Added Keeler: “We patterned ourselves after Mount Union at Rowan. If you're smart, you look at people who've been successful and you steal those things.”
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Kehres shares reasons for his team's success
