A Position of Leadership - Part Two | The Teachings

He'd just committed one of quarterbacking's cardinal sins.

Under pressure, in the grasp of a defender, Stan White impulsively flung a pass towards the wide side of the field.  It was intercepted, and returned for the two most dreaded words a QB can hear – a 'Pick Six'.

It creates an extra-long walk back to the sidelines.

"I thought I was about to get a chewing," recalls White. 

His position coach was waiting on the phone when he got there.  On the other end was Jimbo Fisher, a former quarterback himself.  White didn't receive the message he was expecting.

"Hey man, no problem.  Let's come back and get it next time," said Fisher from upstairs.

"Jimbo was as calm as he could be," White remembers.

It was 1993, and Fisher was in his first year as the quarterbacks coach at Auburn.  White was a senior, it would be his only year under Fisher's tutelage.

"He wasn't much older than I was," says White.

The pick-six came in a September game against Southern Miss at Jordan-Hare Stadium.  Fisher had instructed White to 'get it next time.'  So he did.

On the offensive possession that followed, White laid a deep ball in perfectly for a touchdown.  His trip back to the sidelines was more brisk this time.  His coach was on the phone again.  The Tiger QB couldn't wait for the praise.

"You misread that, we had the tight end open down the middle of the field," Fisher came in with corrections.

When his quarterback was down, Fisher picked him up.  Once up, the coach didn't let him get to high.  The position brings its share of peaks and valleys, there are few better than Fisher at guiding his guy through both.

1993 was a magical year on The Plains.  Auburn had just parted ways with legendary head coach Pat Dye.  Terry Bowden was hired to bring the program back, and he brought Fisher with him.  Fisher was a star signal caller for Bowden at Samford just six years prior.

"He brought fire and tenacity," said White of a young Fisher.

Together they changed Auburn's fortunes.  With the team coming off a .500 season, and no bowl looming because of NCAA sanctions, the Tigers didn't lose in '93.  They went a perfect 11-0.  White was a major reason.

In his first three collegiate seasons, he threw 44 interceptions while completing 52 percent of his passes.  In his year with Fisher, the interceptions dropped to eight, and the completion percentage rose to 61. 
 
White led the Tigers to a comeback victory over Southern Miss that September afternoon.  Three weeks later he outdueled Danny Wuerrfel in a 38-35 upset of 4^th-ranked Florida.  Late in November, White hung 42 points on Georgia, as Auburn dispatched the Dawgs.  The following game, the Tigers topped 11^th-ranked Alabama in the Iron Bowl.

"We had a great relationship," states White of his time with Fisher.  "He knew I was going on my fourth year being a starter, and had a veteran guy that played a lot in the SEC.  I had some success before, and I also had some struggles.  He knew how to treat me.  With respect, but also with sternness."

A redshirt freshman at the time, Dameyune Craig witnessed Fisher's first year work with White.  It was his turn to take the reins of the Tiger offense in 1996 and '97.

He and Fisher had already built a solid foundation.

"I always looked at him as the offensive coordinator," Craig recalls.  "Because he's the only coach I met with in my five years at Auburn University."
 
Several lessons were doled out in those meetings.  The most valuable of which played out on the biggest of stages.

His senior season, Craig found himself in college football's version of a boiling cauldron – The Iron Bowl with the game on the line.

Trailing Alabama, 17-6, in the third quarter, Craig led his team back.  The Tigers were within 17-15 with under two minutes remaining, and had just picked up a fumble.  With a trip to the SEC Championship game at stake, Auburn was given new life.

In Tide territory, they needed a few yards to attempt a game winning field goal, but didn't have much time. 

Craig's own iron was in the fire now.  Jordan-Hare was reaching its threshold.  The atmosphere started to squeeze the mind.  Once the volume gets inside the ears, it can blur the vision.

Craig locked into Fisher's teachings in a time thickened with tension.

"In pressure situations, revert back to fundamentals."

On the 2^nd play of the drive, Craig rolled left requiring him to throw across his body.  He was looking towards walk-on receiver in Hicks Poor.  And, throwing into an Alabama secondary in the '90s proved difficult. 

"I wasn't thinking about who was out there.  I wasn't thinking about who was at corner.  I was thinking about fundamentals," Craig vividly remembers.
"Get the ball back.  Get it up.  Outside shoulder.  Drive through."

Clarity amid chaos.  Simplicity while complication surrounded him.

"I threw the ball and hit him on the right breast plate," Craig says with a smile.  "I think it was three inches from (the defensive back) knocking the ball out."

It wasn't a deep ball.  It wasn't a touchdown.  But, it was enough to put kicker Jarrett Holmes within range.  Soon after, and with only a few ticks on the clock, he nailed the game winner.  Auburn defeated Alabama, 18-17.  They were on their way to the SEC Championship Game.

Craig, as all of Fisher's quarterbacks have, learned to focus on fundamentals, and the not the magnitude.  It's what leads to winning moments.

No longer on the plains, Fisher found himself on the bayou as LSU's offensive coordinator and QBs coach from 2000-2006.

Enter Matt Mauck, who arrived in the Tiger program at the same time, after 3 years of minor league baseball in the Cubs organization.

Mauck redshirted in 2000, and was seldom used the next year until December 8, 2001.  In the 10^th SEC Championship Game in Atlanta, LSU lost starter Rohan Davey early against 2^nd-ranked Tennessee.  With little experience, Mauck was thrust into college football's biggest conference title match.

"That game for me solidified how good a coach Jimbo is," states Mauck.

LSU trailed at halftime.

"I was more of a running quarterback at the time," Mauck recalls.  "Before (that game) he kinda threw this package together that had some quarterback counters, quarterback draws.  Now that's just in everybody's playbook and is normal, but at that time it wasn't all that common."

Fisher's innovation suited Mauck, who led the Tigers back in the 2^nd half.  LSU upset the Volunteers, knocking them out of the BCS National Championship Game.

"I come in, and literally that package, those plays, are what won the game for us," Mauck says looking back.

"It was Jimbo's ability to adapt."
 
LSU won the national championship in 2003, with Mauck starting every game under center.  History may have been different if the QB didn't have Fisher – and a bucket – as a foundation to build upon after inury.

Mauck broke his foot midway through the '02 season.  After sitting out the remainder of that campaign, he was still sidelined through spring ball.

"I couldn't really run or do anything," laments Mauck.

"I would literally sit on an ice bucket.  I'd have a bag of balls, and I'd have a trainer on the other side.  I'd just throw him balls.  Bag, after bag, after bag."

And Fisher was always there, even seeing it as an opportunity to refine the quarterback's game. 

"Jimbo continued to work with me on the offense.  We would do things that made be become a pocket passer."

Mauck remembers that period of injury with meaning.  The changes he made allowed him to thrive in Fisher's scheme.  The '03 results speak for themselves.  He hit on 64 percent of his passes while tossing a school record 28 touchdowns.  The Tigers went 11-1 in the regular season, beat Georgia in the SEC Championship, and topped Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl to shore up the national title.

"He never gave up on me," says Mauck of Fisher.  "He was just as confident as I was that I was going to be back."

Fisher provides it all for his quarterbacks.  For Mauck, it was an uplifting foundation during difficult times.  For Craig, a focus on fundamentals that led him through periods of pressure.  For White, it was an understanding of the game's ebbs and flows, and the steadiness required through both.

Whether it's the foundation, fundamentals or flows in regards to quarterbacking, Fisher knew exactly how to handle them.  With this knowledge, he was on the fast track to becoming a head coach.