Jerry Glanville on an NFL sideline was a staple of my childhood. From creating the “House of Pain” for the Houston Oilers to redefining what football looked like with the Atlanta Falcons, Glanville’s teams were filled with personalities and always exciting to watch.
I first met coach Glanville this past season at a Carson-Newman football game against Newberry. He was scouting players for the East-West Shrine game, for which he’s served as defensive coordinator for the last few seasons. Glanville was impossible to miss in his cowboy hat and giant belt buckle.
When I met him again at the Carson-Newman coaching clinic, he was there sans belt buckle and hat. I joked with him that no one would recognize him without them and he assured me that before he got up to speak, he’d have the proper attire on. Glanville coached the Oilers from 1986-1989 then the Falcons from 1990-1993. After that he bounced around with TV jobs before trying his hand as a college coach for a few seasons at Hawaii and Portland State. In between he was a NASCAR own and a race car driver himself. He seems to have settled into a nice groove now, as a scout and sometimes coach. His personality remains the same.
Glanville knows a thing or two about defense, so I asked him what he thought of the Denver Broncos’ Super Bowl title and his old friend Wade Phillips’ NFL victory lap. Glanville not only built the “House of Pain” defense, he was also one of the architects of one of the top defenses in NFL history, the 1977 Atlanta Falcons. That team still has the all-time fewest points allowed in 14 games in the history of the NFL. Glanville doesn’t think what the Broncos did will become a trend. The NFL won’t let it.
“When you play really good defense, the NFL then try to litigate and make new rules to keep you from stopping them,” Glanville said. “I unfortunately got litigated against three times. Our players always finished up near the top. Every year they’d take our game films, go to Hawaii and try to make rules to stop us from dominating the game. I was so proud of Wade Phillips. I’ve known Wade for a hundred years and I enjoyed watching him win that game.”
Since Glanville is primarily a scout now, we spent most of our time talking the upcoming draft. Here are his thoughts on some of the quarterbacks.
“I like the guy out of Memphis, (Paxton) Lynch,” Glanvill said. “I’ve not seen many guys that are 6-foot-7 that can run like that. He runs like he’s 5-7. He’s got agility and quickness and can make all the throws. I worry about the North Dakota guy (Carson Wentz). He’s in the Big Sky conference and in the Big Sky conference, there’s not a lot of speed. I don’t get excited about a guy playing against defensive backs that can’t play in the NFL.
“I like (California’s Jared) Goff. I like what he gets done leadershipwise. He’s a tough guy, but I like Lynch a little bit better. I look at the post-corner route. Jim Kelly used to throw it in the pregame warm-up and I wouldn’t even watch because he had to try to beat him. But I see that out of Lynch. I don’t see that out of anybody else.”
One of Glanville’s favorite quarterbacks coming out is also one of mine, Oregon’s Vernon Adams Jr. He was on Glanville’s West squad in the East-West Shrine game, but, according to Glanville they couldn’t leave him in.
“His (Adams’) size will hurt him,” Glanville said. “He’s very small, but very, very good. I thought he was bigger than that. When he played at Eastern Washington before he transferred to Oregon. I think he’s probably more 5-foot-8, but what a game. We only played him a quarter or we would have won by a hundred. They absolutely could not stop him.”
#Falcons QB Brett Favre and Head Coach Jerry Glanville pose after Brett is drafted by Atlanta in 1991 pic.twitter.com/nUYhQxg6Mb
— Quarterback Club (@TheNewQBClub) March 21, 2016
As for the debate between Ohio State’s Joey Bosa or Ole Miss tackle Laremy Tunsil at No. 1 to the Tennessee Titans, Glanville has his own perspective on that.
“In the draft you have to be careful,” Glanvillle said. “I ran 25 drafts and you have to draft to fill a need. If you think Bosa’s No. 1 and you don’t need that position, then you have to trade that position and go down. I don’t believe you take an offensive guard when you’ve got two good offensive guards. It’s just like college recruiting. You better be filling the holes that you’re looking at. When you say, ‘who’s the best guy in the draft,’ well, it’s what do you need?
“Bosa has all the tools, but he doesn’t have the temperament. I look at Watt out of Wisconsin. He has Watt ability and more than Watt. I don’t see the temperament the same. Watt got with Bill Kollar, the best defensive coach in America. This year he (Kollar) was with the Broncos and you see what they were able to do. When you get with a guy like that, all the sudden your abilities are shown. I like Bosa, but I don’t think he’ll go first. Tennessee has to protect the quarterback so I think they’ll take the tackle (Tunsil) out of Ole Miss.”
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Finally I asked Glanville who he thought were some of the surprise players in this draft, kids that have come out of seemingly nowhere to land on draft boards.
“We had one in the East-West Shrine game, a wide receiver out of Illinois and he’s going to be a star,” Glanville said. “Geronimo (Allison) can flat-out play. (Michael) Caputo is a safety out of Wisconsin. I wish he had one more quick step. The player that I was overcome with was a defensive tackle out of Kentucky (Cory Johnson). He was the best defensive lineman we had down there (at the Shrine Game) in the last five years.”
We’ll see if Glanville’s predictions hold true. The NFL Draft begins in Chicago on April 28.
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