Just what is 'Buford football?' We went in search to find out

By Jeff Hart Sports Reporter

Posted 5:39AM on Thursday 11th December 2014 ( 10 years ago )

We've all heard it: "That's the Buford Way." But what is it, really? What defines it? Accessnorthga.com sports writer Jeff Hart sat down with two of the main architects of the Buford footbal program, former coach and current Buford Athletic Director Dexter Wood and current coach Jess Simpson, along with former Chestatee head coach Stan Luttrell, who is now the Wolves weightlifting coach, to find out just what does "Buford football" mean and how it got to the point where the Wolves are now considered the gold standard for high school football in Georgia. The Wolves will take on St. Pius Saturday at 4:30 p.m. at the Georgia Dome for the Class AAAA state title. It is Buford's eighth consecutive trip to the finals spanning three different classifications. Coach Wood, back in 1995 you came from Marietta, a successful program in the largest classification in the state, to Buford, in the smallest classification. What did you see at the time that brought you here? It first started with family decisions. I wanted to be at home more and spend more time with my kids and I thought coming to a smaller school would give me that opportunity. I was also intrigued by Buford. I felt the population was coming this way and I had a great belief that the city leaders and the school board wanted to build a successful program. We only had 25 kids in the program when I first got here. I didn't see a slowdown in those first two or three years, though. Coach Wood, explain the "process" as it's being called. Where did you get the inspiration as the so-called architect that built the program to what it is today? Any ultra-successful program has a process in what they believe is the right way to do things. That's no different here at Buford. You have the tangibles and the intangibles. The tangibles are we have talented athletes that are committed to year-round development of their skills; we have unbelievable coaches and we're able to keep them here; we have a commitment from the community and its leaders. That's really all there is to it. When you have success, that attracts other successful people and that's a big reason we've been able to keep things at the level they are at. I got a lot this from my four years at Alabama under Coach (Bear) Bryant. He had three words on the wall at all times: The National Championship. It meant that everything we did was with that goal in mind. You had to work hard every day and commit to the system 100 percent. Working hard and committing yourself is what we want from all of our student-athletes. Coach Simpson, so the 'Buford way' has nothing to do with, 'we're going to run the ball and play great defense?' No, the Buford way is about intangibles. It's about people and the process and it's about the culture. You know, certainly running and blocking and tackling are fundamental to playing good football. But when you talk about who or what is Buford football, I'm not going to start talking about the game of football. It's about that commitment to excellence and of wanting to be the best you can be. I'm sure it's like that at every program but the kids have to believe in themselves and what they are doing and strive to get better. That' what we preach here. I don't know there's ever a secret to success. We've certainly had our share of support in Buford, had really talented players, and had a great coaching staff in place, and a lot of continuity for a long time. My coaches and my kids work really hard, and there's a tradition here of winning and we've been blessed to keep it going. You know, it doesn't happen by accident and you can't take it for granted. I think our kids and coaches have done a really good job over the years, staying focused on right now and not looking back and spending too much time gloating about what they did or looking forward and worrying about tomorrow. We just try to worry about today. Coach Luttrell. you ran a program for eight years. What is it that they do here that say you didn't do at Chestatee? The process itself is a little bit different. The support that Buford has from the city to the administration to the teachers and the community is second to none. I think that they not only coach the athlete and the sport, but they also coach the intangibles. We talk about the family, love, respect, and believe in toughness, poise, etiquette, and class, and just the intangibles and all the other things. The intangibles are what make the difference. Coach Wood, I'm sure you hear people say, 'Oh, they just have all the great athletes and that's why they win so much.' It's more than that, though, right? We do have great athletes. But most of them came to the programs they are in, whether it's football, baseball, basketball, softball, wrestling, what have you, when they were in the ninth grade and weren't what they are when they leave here. They committed to the process of being successful and working hard and living up to the expectations of excellence that we ask of them. We have great coaches across the board that are committed to them so we want them to be committed to doing whatever it takes to be as successful as they can be. You can have superstars at every spot on a roster but without the commitment and the coaching it's just a collection of talent. We try to build teams and families, not individuals. If you commit to the team, you will find individual success along the way. Coach Luttrell, you might have an interesting perspective of this question. Being on the outside until this season and with things that you had heard, is it all talent? Or is there more to it than that? The biggest thing on the outside looking in is that obviously they were a successful program, not just in football but in several sports. Everyone knew of the winning streaks, state championship games, and so everybody perceives that Buford has an overabundance of talent and that they live on talent alone, and that's not the whole truth. There are some very talented student athletes at Buford, in every sport, including football, but there's a process that's in place here that has very high standards and is a major part of the success. There are a lot of talented kids, but there are a lot of blue-collar kids here as well, and in that process, where excellence and commitment are the goal, they have the chance to improve. Most of these kids will only play two years here. A lot of them could start for other teams but they grow up seeing the tradition that has become Buford football and want to play for Buford when they get older and they are willing to wait their turn. They work hard and when it's their shot, they try to make the most of their opportunities. Coach Simpson, with that said, in an age where everyone is trying to get on Youtube and all the other social media outlets for people to express themselves, how do you keep high school kids humble? What do you guys do here that makes them hungry each week to go out and get a win when most outsiders expect them to win easily every week? My college coach always said that if the coaches were hungry, the kids will be hungry. I've always kind of thought from the top down. If I'm hungry and my assistants are hungry, and we got something in our stomach we are aching for, and we approach our work and our practice and preparation that way each day, then the kids can stay that way. The minute that we become complacent is the minute they become complacent. So, I think that's one of those top down things. And obviously having seniors in our program every year that are mature and have watched other seniors go through that process and deal with the expectations, they come to play here and have had some great examples come before us in each group. Talking about the senior leadership, that is very key. Some programs are able to get more out of their seniors than others. Is there a method to the madness on how you approach using the seniors to help keep that tradition going? I think it's what the seniors each year do for the underclassmen. We always talk about, if you want to be a great leader in our program, you got to learn how to be a great follower first. And if, there is certainly different levels of followership and leadership in our program, but that's back on the kids and that's the expectations that we set for them and they set for themselves. Doing it the Buford way is an all-the-time thing for these guys and we talk about that. You got to be an all-the-time guy every day, and it can't be a rollercoaster. All your preparation and mental and emotional approach to things you have to do to be successful can't look different from this Monday to the next Monday; they got to look the same. Coach Wood, but success didn't come overnight. Y'all did not get to a championship game until 2000 and did not get your first title until 2001. Does that get lost with the winning streaks and all the state titles over the past 13 years? We had some early success but as far winning titles, it took six years. We knew it would take some years to get where we wanted to go as a program. Our goal was to build something that would sustain itself. You don't build something like that overnight. The 2000 loss helped us learn what we needed to do to win that final game. Of course, you never know if you're ever going to get another shot at it. Fortunately the kids came back from that loss wanting to do everything they could to get back and win it. That's the commitment we wanted to see. I think that's when we knew we were close to building the kind of program we wanted. Was there a defining moment that helped bring the program to the level it is at right now? I think moving Jess (Simpson) to defensive coordinator in 1999 was a huge step for us. He brought a toughness to those defenses the next six years that helped brand us as a tough, defensive team every year. The other big moment was when he took over for me in 2005. He had the right kind of youthful energy that was needed to take things to the next level. Some people say success is getting the right people on the bus and getting them into the right seats. It took six years to get the right people in the right places. That is also part of the process. Coach Simpson, while the 2000 and 2001 teams helped put Buford on the map, you saw something the year before those, in 1999. Was that the turning point in your mind? It was. When we first got here, Coach Wood's first two years, I think we did have success. We were 13-1 and 12-1, but we still didn't have the whole plan, the whole process installed. The next two years we were 8-3 and 4-6, and it took a little bit a step back. We knew in our hearts this was still not the way we wanted it to be, and it took some growing pains to get it to how we wanted it. You know, we always look to '99 as being our year of being 10-2. It just happened to be (late coach) Ryan Daniel's senior year. They were the kind of group that did an incredible job of buying into a year-round program, and that group kind of set up the tone for future teams, and that was a second round team. But I know as a coach I can honestly say, and no disrespect for any other team, that was really the time when I felt like we could really do something special here, because the kids were buying into the culture and what we were selling. They're buying into the work and the process, so I think that was -- for me -- that was the moment I started going, this could happen for us here. Well, then how important was that 2000 title game? Even though Buford lost to Commerce, what kind of an impact did that have? It was an important part of the process, and I always tell people I remember walking off Commerce's field wondering if we would ever get to play another state championship. I had an older coach that told me he believes you have to get there and lose it before you can get there and win it. Looking back, it was really true. We had learned how to compete for a state championship and learned how to play in a championship game; how to play in it, coach in it, prepare for it, know what goes with those expectations, and it is a process. You don't do that in a week or two or even in a year or two. Final question, Coach Wood, has this thing gotten bigger than you could have imagined it would or could be when you arrived here 20 years ago? [Buford has won seven titles in the past eight years and nine since Wood's came to Buford.] We coaches are so tunnel-visioned thinking about that day, that week, that year that you never say, 'hey, we want to win three (state titles) in a row or seven of eight.' We never thought anything like that. We just wanted to win one. That's [winning nine titles] just something that's hard to put your arms around. Every year we ask ourselves, 'can we block better, can we tackles better, can we be tougher, stronger.' I think that is one of those intangibles that drives the coaches and the players from year to year. For instance, hiring Stan Luttrell has taken us to another level this year. Our goal is find the best people and put them where they can excel and help keep building the program. We are never satisfied with our success.

Buford coach jess Simpson celebrates

http://accesswdun.com/article/2014/12/282799