Blakeney readies for Alabama Sports Hall of Fame

TROY – Larry Blakeney knows if Saturday’s Alabama Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony isn’t emotional, a luncheon earlier in the day will be.

Blakeney, who has won 144 games at Troy since starting at the Division II level in 1991, will be honored by the Auburn Football Letterman’s Club at a noon luncheon – something that will include people from his past at Auburn, where he played for five years and coached for 14 years, and from his past and present at Troy.

One person that will be there is Dwight Hurston, a running back from Georgia who was Blakeney’s college roommate.

Later that night, at the Birmingham Ballroom at the Sheraton Civic Center, he’ll accept his membership into the ASHOF.

“I know it’s something that is tremendous for the individual and it is for me,” Blakeney said. “There’s a lot of toil and strife that you go through with it too to try to do a good job for yourself, your family, your university and your people.

“There’s a lot of folks that should claim ownership to this award for me, or feel like they’re a part of it, which they are. That will be an emotional time because those guys go back a long way with me.”

Blakeney, who went to Gordo High School and played for Tommy White, coached at Southern Academy, Walker and Vestavia Hills before moving on to Auburn. The Trojans went 5-6 in his first year, but 10-1 in the transition year into Division I-AA in 1992. The I-AA years led to three conference titles and seven playoff appearances before Troy moved to its current level in 2001. Since being in the Sun Belt Conference, the Trojans have gone to bowls in three of five years and were snubbed with an 8-4 record in a fourth year (2007).

“We knew we were moving on to I-AA, but the change on moving to I-A was the toughest,” Blakeney said. “When you go back to figure out the years we’ve made postseason to the years of eligibility, we’ve been high percentage of making it. I don’t count the years we weren’t eligible for anybody’s playoffs.”

Blakeney spoke with the Dothan Eagle for a Q and A session on his time at Troy and plans for the future

Eagle: What’s one game that really sticks with you, win or lose?
Blakeney: The one that sticks in my crawl more than anything was the ‘95 game with Georgia Southern (first round of playoffs). (Current defensive coordinator and then-quarterback) Jeremy (Rowell) had thrown a pass to our fullback, Derrick Washington. He goes to the 3 and a guy tackles him in the knee and tears his knee up. We had 42 seconds and no timeouts, but we had a long time after he got hurt.
The fullback is a critical blocker on the sprintout pass. We called that. The second team guy gets beat and we got sacked. We spike it on second down and have one more down. We ran a similar play and Jeremy flashed on the inside receiver and the free safety was sitting right there and he never saw him and threw it right to him.
In my mind with 42 seconds, you hand it to Ted Yarborough and he’s going to score. He gets stopped and you hand it to him again and he’s probably going to score. We lost that game as coaches. We were an independent playing against Georgia Southern who was much more playoff-ready because they were in a league. We go in a league next year and win it. We won the Southland.

Eagle: How much do you think letting go of Mark Fleetwood (as offensive coordinator) and switching to the spread offense changed your career here?
Blakeney: I don’t deny the fact that I had to make some decisions. I’d already tried to go to this offense and hired the wrong guy (John Shannon, in 2001). Not that he’s a bad coach, because he’s not, but he was just in the wrong place. We brought Mark in here and in ‘04 we go to a bowl. 05, we get through the season and don’t get it done. I had already talked to Tony (Franklin) way back in 2001 when we tried to hire him and we didn’t have enough money. We kept in touch. Tony knew I was struggling a little bit and he contacted me. We talked it over again. The offense really intrigued me because it’s something I’ve wanted to do. I think Tony and Neal (Brown) and those guys really work hard and know their kids and know their deal.

Eagle: How much longer do you see yourself coaching?
Blakeney: Oh I don’t know. They’ve got me set as far as retirement. I can retire anytime. I’m not ready in my own mind to retire. I’d like to see some things through here done. I don’t know if we can get them done.

Eagle: What things would you like to see?
Blakeney: Facilities. Football building. I’d like to see how we can recruit when we’re even keel with everybody as far as a place to walk in and look at. The tower’s been great, that out there’s good and the campus is growing. Everything’s on the upswing here and I think we’re able to trend with it. I don’t know where or I don’t know how, but it’s in our plans but I don’t know if I can hold out for it.

Eagle: People say they can’t see how you do it, having to replace talented assistants year in and year out. How do you do it?
Blakeney: This year is the first time I’ve been able to keep them all. A coach’s reputation is public information. It’ll get around if they’re good or not so good. Talking to people and trying to use the resources you’ve got here that know people. I’ve had guys suggest guys to me that I didn’t hire. The coordinators will always have say-so. I won’t always take it, but they’ve got to have input.

Eagle: What’s the next big goal for this program?
Blakeney: I think just trying to continue to win and continue to win the league and see what that brings. I’m not sitting here with illusions of grandeur, but for us to be a BCS-buster, we’ve got to go 11-1, period. Is that possible? I don’t know. If this team really came together and all the pieces fell in place, we might could do that.
BCS, we’re interested in that. I don’t know if we can do it or not and I don’t know if we’re ready for that. I know scheduling is big, home games are big and money is big, but you’ve got to have your priorities up there if you want to do those things. Our record and university is above reproach. Our tradition is above reproach. We’ve got a lot of things. We’ve just got to keep going.

For more from this interview, check out Drew Champlin’s Troy blog