Blakeney readies for ASHOF

By Drew Champlin

Published: May 29, 2009

So I visited Troy earlier this week and spoke with head coach Larry Blakeney about some stuff. As you know, he’s getting inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame Saturday.

HERE is the story, which has some Qs and As at the end. Of note, he says Troy needs to go 11-1 this year to get BCS bowl consideration. I think they probably have to go 12-0 coming from the Sun Belt, but if all the pieces of the puzzle fit, this is a team that can go 10-2 or maybe 11-1. Just clarifying that.

So, in the print edition I left some stuff out. Most notably was how he recovered from the Eric Ramsey scandal that plagued him and Auburn University in the early 90s. It was 1991 when the information became public and he was already here at Troy.

Here’s some more from the interview Wednesday….

This came out in 1991, right?
“Right before the Samford game which we lost on a bad call. We lost the game on a real bad call. It was obvious to the folks in the stands that it was a bad call.“

What’s going through your mind at the time?
“A lot of things go through your mind. Dr. Jack Hawkins, Dr. Doug Hawkins and later Ken Blankenship all stood tall for me and believed in me and believed that I had made a mistake but it wasn’t one that was worth getting fired over. They went with me to Indianapolis, all three of them. We were penalized, I was penalized, Auburn was penalized…

“My salary was froze. I couldn’t speak to alumni for a year or two or whatever. I went back to the NCAA without representation and talked to them about my situation a year or two later. They totally rescinded and ended all sanctions after I talked to them. But the stigma sticks with you and you’ve got to deal with it and be tough enough to handle it. It’s probably made me better…

“I don’t have any pent-up get-even revenge. I’m not looking for revenge…

“You rebound from it with family support. My family was hurt more than me. My daughters were young but they were probably sheltered a little bit from it. Janice, my wife, was the one that dealt with it and still deals with it not every well…

“It doesn’t bother me. I feel sorry for Eric Ramsey because he was a pawn in the whole deal. He had no creativity in that deal. He was being led by a not-so-classy lady and a crooked lawyer trying to get after big Auburn University and they did…

“I’ve got a lot of paperwork in the file. I’m trying to forget it, not remember it. It’s a shame that that has to be a part of everything but that’s part of my history so I deal with it. I deal with it readily.“

Does it feel like you’ve had three jobs since you’ve been at Troy and you guys were Division II, Division I-AA and now at the current level?
“Exactly. We talked about that a little bit. About the time you think you’ve got it figured out, you move divisions. We knew we were moving on to I-AA, but the change on moving to I-A was the toughest. When you go back to figure out the years we’ve made postseason to the years of eligibility, we’ve been high percentage.
I don’t count the years we weren’t eligible for anybody’s playoffs…

“I don’t count us being eligible for the postseason until we got into the Sun Belt. We had a say in the postseason in 2001 when we played North Texas and sent them to the bowl with the losing record.“

Are you more of a CEO during practice?

“I don’t really like that term but I still coach them. I coach the coaches and know the players. I don’t necessarily coach them in their scheme.“

But you let your coaches have free reign to coach their position players, right?
“I don’t believe in doing it any other way. I hope we can win because I’m not going to change. I’ve never met a coach I didn’t like. Growing up, little league. My high school coach, the guy that coached me for four years (Tommy White), he was the reason I was drawn to being a coach.“