Career record: 730-107
Career winning pct: 872
National Championships: 4
Conference Championships: 35
Current teams: none
THE BASICS
cbriese: Let's get the basic stuff out of the way first: name and age?
deandg: Dean Garrison, 38 years old
cbriese: Where are you from? Where do you live now?
deandg: I am originally from Kansas City, so I grew up being a huge Chiefs, Royals, Kings, and Comets (if anyone knows indoor soccer) fan.
cbriese: Married? Single? Kids?
deandg: Married almost 6 years. I have two wonderful girls. Jordan Alexis is 4 and Hayden Sophia is 1 1/2.
cbriese: Where did you go to school?
deandg: I was actually in a Catholic High School Seminary called Savior of the World for 3 years. Graduated from Bishop Ward High School after transferring there for my Senior Year. I went on to go to Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas but did not complete my degree.
cbriese: What do you do for a living?
deandg: Oh man, I wish we could skip this question. (just kidding) I lost a pretty successful business about 18 months ago. We were doing quite well and then Murphy's Law hit. Now I am basically working as a blue collar grunt at a local print house. I run a paper cutter. Pretty glamorous huh? It's been the ultimate lesson in humility. I eventually want to go back into business for myself but right now my idea reservoir is pretty dry.
cbriese: Favorite sports teams?
deandg: I am pretty true to my hometown teams. Other than the Kansas City teams I love the Kansas Jayhawks. And growing up Catholic I have to cheer for Notre Dame. It's like the 8th sacrament.
cbriese: Favorite sports figures?
deandg: Only one. Bar none. Lance Armstrong. I have no interest in cycling. But that guy is a total stud. I idolize guys like Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods, but there is only one guy who went through what Lance went through and just won anyway. He's my hero. If we had a boy that's what I wanted to name him.
cbriese: Favorite pizza? Favorite beer? Favorite restaurant?
deandg: Pepperoni and Jalepenos. I no longer drink but I was a Bud Light guy when I did. My favorite restaurant is actually a chain called Cheddars. If you are not familiar with it, it's a lot like Applebees.
cbriese: Mary Ann or Ginger?
deandg: Both. And if the bed is large enough Mrs. Howell too. ;-)
cbriese: Anything on TV today strike your fancy?
deandg: I work nights so TV is tough for me. But I used the DVR to follow Friday Night Lights for about the first 10 episodes last season. Great show.
cbriese: What do you do when you're not playing GD or making money to play GD?
deandg: I do a lot of stuff with the family. I read. I watch a ton of sports. I spend a lot of time in the sack at a local motel with Maryann, Ginger, and Mrs. Howell.
cbriese: I know you have embraced HBD. What differences do you find between HBD and GD, besides the obvious different sports, minor league systems, etc...? Is there anything in HBD you would like to see incorporated in GD?
deandg: HBD is just way more intricate and way more challenging to me. Let me tell you a secret. I really don't like baseball that much. Football is the sport for me. But I also love challenges and HBD is so much more challenging. The line between great teams and mediocre teams is much less. AND you can improve your team mid-season. I guess what I would like to see is a pro football version of HBD.
cbriese: Do you play any other WIS games?
deandg: Not right now. I've tried a few but HBD is the one for me right now.
cbriese: How about video games? Any other Internet-based games? Strat-O-Matic?
deandg: None of the above. But I played Avalon Hill sports games as a kid. Never did play Strat-O-Matic but I think they are very similar.
GENERAL WIS and GD
cbriese: How did you find out about WIS?
deandg: I really don't remember. Probably a search engine.
cbriese: Tell me about your first GD team. Who was it? Why did you pick that school? How did you do? How did you get better?
deandg: St. John Fisher. We sucked. I think we went like 9-17 in my two seasons there. Those are my only two teams in something like 50 seasons not to make the post season. I actually went online and bought a St. John Fisher hat. I was immediately hooked. In my third season I jumped sideways to the dominant team in our conference. Cherry picker? You bet ya. But I took them to their first national championship and learned a lot there. I'd strongly advise cherry picking for a lot of coaches. You learn a lot of things by taking a team with superior talent that you can't possibly learn by trying to win with scrubs.
cbriese: Which level in GD (DIII, DII, D1-AA, non-BCS, BCS) do you find most challenging? Which one is your favorite?
deandg: DIA is by far the most challenging. That's where the best coaches are. It's also my favorite.
cbriese: Do you enjoy rebuilding bad teams?
deandg: I don't believe in rebuilding slow, but the answer is yes. St. John Fisher (my first team) was a learning experience for me. But some of my best accomplishments are taking horrible teams and making them winners instantly. I took St. Anselm, Maryland, and DePaul (3 teams that had NEVER had a human coach) and put them all into the post season in my first season as coach.
cbriese: You had a great deal of success in GD, and then at one point quit. Why?
deandg: Burn out was #1. Also with my employment circumstances changing it was tough to do half time adjustments (which are my bread and butter) and recruiting. Also, the challenge was just lacking. I won a few national titles and lost a bunch more. LOL But the game was starting to lack in depth to me. I could tell you 98 times out of 100 who was going to win any given game and that's just not much fun.
cbriese: Are you back in as another ID? Do you see yourself returning at one point?
deandg: Not back. I may come back but there is going to have to be a lot to get me that excited.
cbriese: What have your favorite GD teams been, and why?
deandg: Those 3 instant rebuilds at Maryland, DePaul, and St. Anselm were fun. DePaul was probably my favorite. They have no football team in real life so I enjoyed keeping a journal about Blue Demon football. We actually found a helmet for them and all kinds of stuff.
cbriese: Let's get on to GD strategy. First, in choosing a team, what's most important? Returning players? Previous record (for prestige)? Number of open schollies? Other coaches in the conference? Cool helmets?
deandg: Number of open scholarships is most important to me. I like to pick a team with at least 16 to 17 openings and cut 3 guys to get up to around 20. You can rebuild any team lightning fast if you have enough openings.
GD RECRUITING
cbriese: In recruiting, did you go long-distance, or stay close to home?
deandg: Long distance at EVERY level. A lot of guys don't think you can afford to go long distance at D3 and D2, but you can't afford not to. You can't win championships from most schools without doing it.
cbriese: Did you share recruiting lists with anyone?
deandg: Yes I did, but that ended up being a mistake late in my GD career. When distributions changed there just weren't enough recruits to go around in certain areas.
cbriese: Did you initiate recruiting battles? Would you jump in late (a cycle or two before initial signings) on a recruit?
deandg: As a general rule I did not. I did a couple of times when time was an issue and I literally couldn't get to recruiting before then.
cbriese: Do you remember any battles in particular? What's the most, roughly, you ever spent on a player? What's the most spent and lost?
deandg: I've spent around 60K on a DIA player and lost. I think that's also around the most I have ever had to spend to win.
cbriese: What was your preferred class size setup? 13-12-13-12? Or do you like one large class, like 20-10-10-10? I had to ask this, as I am still rolling with roughly a 30-20-0-0 setup with one team.
deandg: I had one team that was something like 20-20-6-4. That was great because in the seasons where you had 6 and 4 you could stockpile a ton of cash by just grabbing a few role players.
cbriese: Within the confines of defined core categories for each position, did you particularly target one category? For instance, did you rate BLK above all other things for OL or TKL above everything else for DL?
deandg: Let me just go position by position and tell you the things that were highest priority to me:
QB - Tech and GI
RB - Elusiveness and Strength
WR - Speed, Hands, Technique, Elusiveness
TE - Speed, Hands, Technique, Elusiveness (I loved throwing to TEs but I'd also have 1 or 2 that were stictly blockers for run sets)
OL - Blocking and strength
DL - Tackling and strength
LB - Speed and Game Instinct
DB - HANDS, Speed, Game Instinct, Athleticism
K - Whoever I could get cheap and only one of them.
P - I don't believe in punters.
At EVERY SINGLE POSITION the most important attribute that gets overlooked is STAMINA.
cbriese: How much did WE factor in to your recruiting decisions? What about the Asst Coach recommendation about potential?
deandg: I didn't care much about work ethic. And as for the coach recommendations I only used them to break ties between equal players. Part of this is because of the way I build. If a guy isn't good enough to contribute as a freshman than I don't really want him.
cbriese: Did you tend to spend everything, or did you build up a big bankroll in recruiting?
deandg; I had a couple of teams where I developed a bankroll. But for the most part I spent it all. My theory is this. If you have 50K to carryover then you didn't put the best team on the field that you could THIS SEASON.
cbriese: How would you typically populate your teams? (Ex: 2 QB, 4 RB, 4 WR, 4 TE, 9 OL, 8 DL, 7 LB, 7 DB, 1 P, 1 K, 3 redshirts)
deandg: I've run every formation there is so it depends. But here is what I would do for a team running ND Box with a Wishbone pass offense:
QB- 2
RB- 6
TE- 4
WR- 3
OL- 10
DL- 9
LB- 7
DB- 8
K- 1
REDSHIRTS ZERO!!! I only redshirt in extreme circumstances. For the most part that was my advantage. Those 3 extra fresh bodies do a lot for a team when injuries hit or simply to keep the starters a little fresher.
GD PRACTICE and GAME PLANNING
cbriese: Did you have preferred offensive/defensive sets? What were they?
deandg: I've used all of them at various times but I hate pro set. I just never had any success with pro set.
cbriese: How much time would you typically practice sets? How about special teams?
deandg: Two offensive sets 15 minutes each. 4 defensive sets 10 minutes each. Special teams 15 minutes.
cbriese: The general consensus that I have heard is that your biggest strength was game planning. What was going through your head when first looking at a matchup? How much time did you require to set up each game plan?
deandg: My first thought is always how I can exploit the defense. For instance, are the LBs weak? If so, I have had TEs literally go for 500 receiving yards in 1 single game. Are they weak up front? I'm not afraid to run the ball 75 times either. When I first started and when I was most successful, my game plans took about an hour. In the end when I didn't care as much I'd spend 10 minutes tops.
cbriese: What's more important? Planning for your strength? Or planning for an opponent's weakness?
deandg: That just depends on the opponent, who has home field, etc
cbriese: How would you use aggressiveness settings, from Very Conservative to Very Aggressive?
deandg: I used them all but I have some general rules. First on passing offense I vary rarely go anything but very conservative. Too many interceptions, too many incompletions, and almost zero noticeable difference in yards per catch. I've had teams average 21 yards per reception throwing nothing but very conservative passes all season.
I have one general rule when setting aggressiveness for the run game. 3 LBs or less I go aggressive or very aggressive. 4 LBs I go conservative.
On defense it got way more complicated.
cbriese: Did the other team's offensive or defensive aggressiveness settings ever affect the way you set your aggressiveness settings? For example,
if a team ran a conservative passing offense, were you more apt to counter with a conservative defense?
deandg: Absolutely. You can spot a conservative trips offense for example because the team will have an unusually high pass completion percentage and an abnormally low amount of interceptions. I would counter a conservative trips passing offense (for example) with a 3-4 defense. More linebackers clutter up the short routes. And if the team also ran from trips quite a bit, I'd even go with a 4-4 very conservative-always pass.
This would stop the run by accident and still be effective against the pass. What happens ideally is not more incompletions, but you end up making more tackles for short gains. I've had games where the other team completed 70-80% of their passes but still couldn't move the ball that well because they averaged 7-8 yards per catch. But one word of caution, you can't really pull this off without good pass coverage LBs. A lot of times I would recruit DBs with the sole intention of turning them into bad tackling LBs. But they'd be hell on wheels in coverage. In DIA you can't find LBs with speed of higher than 80, UNLESS you convert a DB to a LB. I had LBs with 90 speed on more than one occasion.
cbriese: Would you change aggressiveness settings during the course of a season? At halftime?
deandg: Sure. Sometimes genius moves come from desperate circumstances.
cbriese: How would you vary your pass/run mix from down to down in a particular set?
deandg: These are tough questions to answer because every team I had was a little different. But basically my theory is run on 1st down, run on 2nd down, and if you have more than 3 yards left on third down, throw a pass.
cbriese: Would you change the definition of short/medium/long very often? Why?
deandg: I used yardage tricks to steal some wins when you could still do that. I'd set 1st down, short yardage all the way up to like 35 yards and throw nothing but passes.
cbriese: How would you use advanced depth charts to your advantage? Would you vary starters at halftime to keep folks fresh?
deandg: Advanced depth charts are the difference between the really good coaches and the average coaches. I have to be careful what I say here because a couple of guys that taught me this stuff really didn't want me to share it. But let's just say this... I believe that if anyone on your team is set at below 85% effectiveness you are probably not maximizing your talent. The only exceptions I would offer are guys like QBs in run sets who aren't going to pass, blocking backs that aren't carrying the ball, WRs in run sets, etc. I rarely had a starter on offense or defense set at less than 90%. I've already said too much.
In division 1A look at the bowl teams next season. You will rarely find a team that makes it to a national championship game with less than 55 average team stamina. I used that as my rule of thumb. If my team stamina doesn't average 55-60 then I am looking to improve that with next seasons recruits.
cbriese: How did you vary your depth charts from one set to another? Did you, for instance, have a top three DL for nickel, and a different top three for a 4-4?
deandg: Yes I did. With my Nebraska team I carried 10 DLs and played them all, so I actually had every guy starting in at least 1 formation, even if it was nickel or dime.
cbriese: Did you have an opportunity to use the per-down defensive game plans?
deandg: Yes I did but I was never in favor of them. What I always wanted to see was the defense pick down and distance without getting to prepare for the formation. There has to be some element of surprise to an offense. For instance, if you have 3rd and 9 and the defense is playing dime, they should have to spend a timeout when you come out in ND Box. They shouldn't automatically be adjusted to 3-4 (or whatever). I think it's stupid.
cbriese: How did you usually set your distributions for running and passing?
deandg: I'll just have to give a couple of examples because it varied.
ND Box RBs:
1- 99% distribution
2- 0% distribution (blocking back only)
3- 49% distribution
4- 24% dist
5- 12% dist
6- 6% dist
Trips WRs/TEs:
I would never even set distributions in most games because a good QB will find the right receiver. But there is one exception. If I had a TE that could kill the defense I'd set him at 99% and leave all of the WRs at 0%. I think my big game for a TE was 560 yards receiving, 9 TDs on something like 20 catches. That was 1 game.
cbriese: What trends did you look for in your opponent's game planning?
deandg: The most important thing was to look for formation switches on defense. For instance, if a guy is running 4-4 against ND Box I will run conservative against it. But if he switches to 5-2 on 3rd and short I will go very aggressive against that.
cbriese: What kind of team gave you the most trouble?
deandg: It was never a certain type of team, it was just teams coached by certain guys. I've beaten good coaches and lost to good coaches but there are 3 guys who could beat me at times when I had superior talent: jeffkahleb, mjmage, jtrover55. 95 times in 100 the better team wins. But good coaches make a living off of pulling upsets. I've won dozens of games I shouldn't have. But those 3 guys are the only 3 that I can truly ever remember beating me when I should have won. Let me rephrase that. All of them have done it 2 or more times. I can remember several others doing it one time. They are the 3 best game planners in GD in my opinion.
cbriese: What set you apart from other in game preparation? Why do so many people feel you were the best they faced?
deandg: I was obsessed and spent a ton of time. I'd break down every single matchup. I don't know about the reputation of being the best anyone ever faced. A lot of times you just hit the coach at the right time. Here are two examples: I have a great record against plague. But a lot of times when I played him it was one of my better teams against one of his worse teams. I have never beaten scottso. But I never had a team that I felt should have beaten him when we played. Sometimes it's the luck of the draw.
cbriese: Who did you learn from in game planning? What was the most difficult team to game plan against?
deandg: I've had literally dozens of mentors which may be my biggest secret. I'll leave some out but let me name a few: bronco2rings, plague, wlarson, paranoid.
As far as difficult game plans. I hate those teams that run 4 or more formations. Not because it's really harder to stop, it just takes more time to do a game plan.
cbriese: If you had to give some basic game planning advice, what would it be?
deandg: Have 1 pass offense and 1 run offense and don't outthink yourself. On defense DO NOT be afraid to run formations you haven't practiced. It's better to run the right formation than to try to stop an all out passing attack with a 4-4.
WRAPPING UP
cbriese: What were your favorite conferences/teams?
deandg: I really didn't have any favorite teams. I loved playing with ddingo, jtrover, djgomez, dwhit, buffalorob, rlahann, and the whole gang in Big-12 Bryant. That is the most talented group of coaches I played with. And when you got a win there you deserved it.
cbriese: What are the best things about GD? How can it improve?
deandg: The best thing about it is that it's football. Man I love college football. But as for improvements... I'd like to see basics taken care of before they go with huge improvements. I played something like 50 seasons and never saw a fumble on special teams or a penalty. There are dozens of improvements that can be made to any of these sports sims but I'd like to see the basics taken care of before a bunch of huge sweeping advanced changes.
cbriese: What do you miss about not having any GD teams at the moment?
deandg: Not much. Just mostly the people. And possibly the rewards points. I haven't paid for a WIS game in years now because I built up so many rewards points. All of my HBD teams have been financed from the 30+ free seasons I had earned in GD.
cbriese: What would it take to get you back into GD?
deandg: I don't know. I've had people try to smack talk me into it and that didn't work. Mostly it just doesn't fit my schedule or desires right now. My last season in GD I took a team that should have gone 12-2 and went 10-4 with them. I didn't even do a game plan for my bowl game. I'm sure I'll get the itch again someday but it really just isn't the time.
cbriese: Do you see any coaches out there now that can rival you for coaches corner verbosity?
deandg; I play in Jersey League in HBD and you guys have no idea. I can't get a word in edgewise there. But that's OK, I'll let my current 24-7 record speak for me. ;-) j/k
cbriese: You have the last word. What is it?
deandg: Thanks for the opportunity Chuck. And for the rest of you... I miss you guys. And I will be back. I just don't know when. I don't like going at anything less than 100% and I can't go 100% right now.
