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Loeffler's Link

Sept. 17, 2020

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. --- This is something completely different for Scott Bailey, an entirely different game.

Literally.

A whole new territory,  like moving from Paris, France to Paris, Missouri. Nothing against Paris, Missouri but, well ... you know.

Bailey's players know what's going on, so much so, they're showing concern for him.

"I've actually had a number of players who've either texted me or come up to me and asked me if I'm doing okay," said Bailey, first-year head coach of the Jefferson City Jays. .

"Because they know I'm not used to this, that where I come from things were a lot different for a lot of years."

Indeed they were.

The winless Jays have lost three games this season; at Lamar, Bailey lost 10 games ---in his final nine seasons. In eight of those, he had two or fewer losses, he only lost three games once.

"Everybody's who involved in our program on a weekly basis has supported me (and his wife) Donna from the beginning," Bailey said. "The support's coming from every level, including the players."

As it should. Bailey was hired June 9, meaning he had two months to build a coaching staff and get the Jays ready for the season. As great as Bailey's pedigree is, that's basically impossible.

He led Lamar, his alma mater, to seven consecutive state championships --- a record that will likely never be broken --- from 2011-17. The Tigers  went 98-5 in those seasons, including 43-0 the last three years.

Bailey stepped down as Lamar's head coach in December after the Tigers' 10-3 season, which ended with a loss in the Class 2 quarterfinals. The year before, when the championship streak was snapped with a loss in the semifinals, Lamar went 12-2.

Now this. Besides starting 0-3, the Jays have lost 10 straight dating back to Week 3 of last season, which is the longest losing streak in the history of this program.

And we're talking about a program that started playing football to 1905.

Jefferson City --- which hosts Sedalia (0-3) at 7 p.m. Friday at Adkins Stadium --- is getting closer to ending the skid as evidenced by last week's last-minute 23-21 loss to undefeated Rock Bridge ... if that's any consolation.

It's not.

"In football, just like all other sports;" Bailey said, "there's no such thing as a moral victory, they don't go in the win column. You can go back and look at what you did well and where you need to improve, but there's a score at the end of the game."

Having said that ...

"We've improved each of the three weeks we've played," Bailey continued. "We knew we had an inexperienced team coming into the season, I hope we've gained some experience in those three weeks and we can come into Week 4 and get the first win of the season.

"It's hard to go through all these weeks and never get paid. The payday of getting a win would help everybody feel good about themselves and for the work they've put in to get to this point.

"I believe that getting a win would create an energy level that can carry us for a while."

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

BAILEY ACTUALLY SUFFERED THROUGH some brutally tough times in his second season at Lamar --- 0-10.

"The first thing I do when things don't go right and we're not winning," he said, "is that I start to doubt everything I think I know about football. I immediately start wanting to change a bunch of stuff and do things different.

"Now, I think that's the exact wrong approach. I think when things aren't going well you just have to go back to fundamentals and work on those, instead of trying to change something you think is going to create a quick fix.

"What I'm trying not to do here is scrap what I know is solid football --- offense, defense and special teams --- thinking it can change something."

In 2007, however, Bailey was still a young head coach and searching for something. He finally found it.

"I was in charge of the offense and it was one of the worst offenses in the history of Lamar football," he said. "Every week I was hoping and praying to find something new, and I never found anything to stick with until the end of the season when I stumbled onto the Spin (offense, a variation of the misdirection).

"We looked at those few plays we were running at the end of that miserable season that actually worked, and it really slowed the defense down because they weren't sure where the ball was."

The rest is championship history.

"In 2008, we had an average Class 2 offensive line," Bailey continued, "and we went into the season with the idea that if we can't block them, we'll fool them. We preached to our guys in the backfield that one good fake can fool two of those defenders, and that's two guys out of the 11 we don't have to block.

"It creates what I call smoke and mirrors and sleight of hand. If you can't block 'em, fool 'em."

It's something Bailey and the Jays have implemented more of each week.

"In Week 1, we had some ideas we thought might be the next step in the Spin offense, trying to marry it to the Spread offense," Bailey said. "In Weeks 2 and 3, we started incorporating more of the traditional spin stuff, which I know best.

"Now, we're to the point that we're looking to see how we can continue to marry it to the Spread, so we can to develop the run and pass game both."

The defense has also improved, no smoke and mirrors required.

"When you get a lot of guys to the football, your tackling always looks better," Bailey said. "Overall, I think our blocking and tackling have both improved since Week One; I think our tackling has improved because we're getting more guys to the ball."

Block better, tackle better ... spoken like a true coach. So what's been the strength of the team the first three weeks?

The one thing you want more than anything else.

Effort.

"Our kids are playing as hard on the last down of the game as they are the first down of the game," Bailey said. "So if we're going to hang our hats on something we can build on going into the middle part of the season, it's that we know when we line up, our kids are going to play the whole game."

And that's all you can ask. Now, if that effort can produce a long, long overdue win.

"I think a win would improve everything going forward," Bailey said, "because they're going to want that feeling again."

That's because winning is contagious, but unfortunately, so is losing.

Struggling Jays might be 0-3, but
losing isn't due to lack of effort 

First-year head coach Scott Bailey and the Jefferson City Jays will look to break into the win column when they host another winless team, Sedalia Smith-Cotton (0-3), at 7 p.m. Friday at Adkins Stadium.