St. Louis Indoor Grid Fortunes Have Grown With Wyatt At the Helm
September 4, 2006 - National Indoor Football League (NIFL)
RiverCity Rage News Release
When Mike Wyatt returned to the United States in 2004 after having spent 13 years coaching in Europe to take over as the head football coach of the St. Louis franchise in the National Indoor Football League, he inherited a team that had managed only 7 wins in the previous three years of play. The team, led by former Mizzou Head Football Coach Warren Powers was coming off it's most successful season at 4-10, but a winning season and hopes of making the playoffs looked to be more of a pipe dream.
"I really wasn't sure that I could coach this game or that I would even like the game when I came in. It was completely uncharted territory for me." Stated Wyatt.
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Wyatt often notes that the first indoor football game that he saw, live, he coached in , when his team traveled to Omaha for an exhibition game in 2004.
Well, Wyatt has warmed up to the game. In that first season in 2004, his team established a new total offense record for the league while producing the franchises first winning record at 9-5 and first-ever playoff appearance. His team also boasted a wide receiver that set the league record for catches and yards and a quarterback that was the Atlantic Conference MVP, in the process.
Wyatt often refers to the indoor football game as "playing football in a phone booth" because the field is only a quarter the size of a conventional football field. However, the coach of the 14-2, 2006 Atlantic North Division Champion RiverCity Rage could never be accused of thinking inside the box.
If the indoor football game is unconventional, then Wyatt is an unconventional coach in an unconventional game.
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For starters, Wyatt never appears on the field during games. In fact, he can't even be found on his own bench. He much prefers to go to the press box and communicate with his staff via radio headsets. In his 28 year coaching career that shows a record of 222- 77-2 (.737 winning %) as a head football coach at all levels, Wyatt has rarely been out of the press box.
"I get so much better view from above. It helps me see plays develop and where we can exploit weaknesses in a team's alignment and scheme." stated Wyatt.
Also, conventional wisdom would see a team have a separate offensive and defensive coordinators, however, Wyatt prefers to call both sides of the ball.
"I learned a long time ago that as a head coach you get a list of numbers strung behind your name and if I was going to have to take those numbers, for me to turn the play calling over to someone else, I would have to trust them more than I trust myself." Wyatt noted. "I have only turned my defense over to another coach three or four times, throughout my entire coaching career."
In the coaching profession, it is often said, "it's not the "X's and O's, but the Jimmies and Joes" that make a team successful. However, though Wyatt believes strongly in having the best available talent, he also believes that a good plan and players who will conform to a "team" mentality are more valuable than a team full of superstars.
"There's only one football so everyone doesn't get to touch it. You have to play your role and have to put team before self. That isn't to say that we don't have some very good players, but even our star players are very unselfish when it comes to their role on the team." Wyatt postulated.
The Rage boasts players like Terrell Washington, a former NFL signee of the Houston Texans after completing his career at the University of Illinois; Moses Regular who, like Washington, spent time in the NFL-Europe as well as in several NFL camps; but Wyatt has also taken players that other teams have cast off and given them the opportunity to shine in his system. Players like Adam Warren who was released by the league champions Billings Outlaws and Mike Matranga who was in two other indoor football camps before landing a spot on the Rage, both came in, bought in and blossomed in Wyatt's system.
In guiding the Rage to 14-2 in 2006, Wyatt had to play games without as many as five starters on a team where you only have 16 starters, but the team did not missed a beat. Going into the Lakeland, Florida, game at mid-season, Wyatt did not even dress a kicker or a back-up quarterback to face the, then, undefeated 8-0 Thunderbolts. The Rage managed to pull out a victory on the game's final play on a five-yard touchdown pass from Anthony Fisher to Moses Regular.
"We like to develop as much depth as we can, given the numbers we have to work with. A pro football season is a marathon, not a sprint. If the players will be patient, they will all make a contribution at some point during a 14 game regular season and the possibility of up to three playoff games." Wyatt told.
When delved deeper into his coaching philosophy, Wyatt will talk about there being two kinds of coaches, i.e., teachers. There are shapers and prompters. According to Wyatt shapers are what would come to mind when one thinks of most football coaches philosophies. Shapers tell you what to do and how to do it and pretty much demand that it be done a certain way. Prompters, on the other hand, tend to give the player more of an opportunity for individual interpretation as to how to arrive at the desired result.
"I am more of a prompter, I want my players to understand the how and why of the way we do things. A lot of my players go on to become good coaches because of the understanding they have of the game." Added Wyatt.
Another oddity surrounding the Rage that Wyatt utilizes 8 assistant coaches for 8-man football giving them a high coach to player ratio.
"My good friend, Carl Hargrave who coaches tight ends for the NFL's Arizona Cardinals asked me how many coaches we had. I told him that I have 8 assistants. To which he responded "Eight assistants for eight man football" while shaking his head and laughing.
One of those assistant coaches is also a German National. Sven Hack, who played for Wyatt for the Rhein Main Razorbacks in the German Football League coordinates the Rage offensive and defensive line play. A non-American coaching a highly American sport would be another in the list of Wyatt's unconventional wisdom.
"I don't think a passport determines one's ability to do a job. It is the passion that a person has inside that makes for a good employee, no matter the job." Wyatt stated.
Wyatt's coaching resume shows thirteen years spent in Europe coaching football as well as stints as offensive coordinator at the University of Wisconsin-Stout and Oklahoma Panhandle State University. Wyatt also notes five years in the high school ranks at Atoka High School in Atoka, Oklahoma where he helped turn around the Wampus Cats fortunes.
Wyatt has been twice named Atlantic Conference Coach of the Year in 2004 and 2005 while guiding his team to first round playoff appearances and winning the Atlantic North Division title in 2005. He also was named at General Manager of the Year in 2005, as well. His RiverCity Rage has been one of the league's most successful teams boasting a 24-7 record over the previous two seasons. In 2006, the Rage also led the league in scoring offense, averaging 70.6 points per game and in total offense and red zone scoring effieicency at 91.6%. The team also was # 2 in total defense and scoring defense, as well.
Coaching football in Europe, coaching indoor football, rebuilding down and out programs, that has been Wyatt's mark in the business of football. If one used a theme song to best describe Wyatt's coaching career, it would have to be Sinatra's "I Did It My Way."
Wyatt is still doing it his way in St. Louis and rolling up the big numbers in the process.
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National Indoor Football League Stories from September 4, 2006
- St. Louis Indoor Grid Fortunes Have Grown With Wyatt At the Helm - RiverCity Rage
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