SEC Coaches Nick Saban, Jimbo Fisher Slated to Visit San Angelo for Football Clinic

SAN ANGELO, TX-- The 45th Annual Angelo Football Clinic is etched in Texas and American football lore.

Coaches from across the United States come to speak and coaches from across the United States flock to San Angelo to listen.

[[{"fid":"41033","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"(Contributed/Angelo Football Clinic)","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"(Contributed/Angelo Football Clinic)"},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"(Contributed/Angelo Football Clinic)","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"(Contributed/Angelo Football Clinic)"}},"attributes":{"alt":"(Contributed/Angelo Football Clinic)","title":"(Contributed/Angelo Football Clinic)","class":"media-element file-default","data-delta":"1"}}]]

What is now known as the Angelo Football Clinic got its unofficial start back in 1971 when then-UTEP head coach Bum Phillips called up some of his coaching buddies like the man who found Tony Romo, Jim Hess, and Jerry Vandergriff, the winningest football coach in Angelo State University's history.

Now names like Alabama’s Nick Saban and Texas A&M’s newly-appointed head coach Jimbo Fisher headline this event

“It’s a blessing,” said Coach John Paul Young. “We try to do things to make sure good coaches come back to speak.”.

[[{"fid":"41035","view_mode":"default","fields":{"alt":"Texas A&M Head Football Coach speaks in San Angelo June 12, 2018. (SECSports.com)","title":"Texas A&M Head Football Coach speaks in San Angelo June 12, 2018. (SECSports.com)","class":"media-element file-default","data-delta":"2","format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Texas A&M Head Football Coach Jimbo Fisher speaks in San Angelo June 12, 2018. (SECSports.com)","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"Texas A&M Head Football Coach Jimbo Fisher speaks in San Angelo June 12, 2018. (SECSports.com)"},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"2":{"alt":"Texas A&M Head Football Coach speaks in San Angelo June 12, 2018. (SECSports.com)","title":"Texas A&M Head Football Coach speaks in San Angelo June 12, 2018. (SECSports.com)","class":"media-element file-default","data-delta":"2","format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Texas A&M Head Football Coach Jimbo Fisher speaks in San Angelo June 12, 2018. (SECSports.com)","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"Texas A&M Head Football Coach Jimbo Fisher speaks in San Angelo June 12, 2018. (SECSports.com)"}},"attributes":{"alt":"Texas A&M Head Football Coach Jimbo Fisher speaks in San Angelo June 12, 2018. (SECSports.com)","title":"Texas A&M Head Football Coach Jimbo Fisher speaks in San Angelo June 12, 2018. (SECSports.com)","class":"media-element file-default","data-delta":"2"}}]]
Above: Texas A&M Head Football Coach Jimbo Fisher speaks in San Angelo June 12, 2018. (SECSports.com)

Coach Young got his start in coaching at the University of Texas-El Paso, then known as Texas Western, where he spent his collegiate career on the Offensive Line for the Miners. Bum Phillips was the head coach during that time and recruited Young to be a graduate assistant.

“He saw me in the breakfast line and handed me a list of things he wanted me to do,” Young recalled. “I told him I would do it after my student teaching. He told me, ‘Do it after breakfast. This is your student teaching now.”

During the first meeting of coaches in Tom Green County, only 10 or 12 coaches piled into Phillips’ hotel room that had a chalkboard for the coaches to bounce ideas off each other before the new season.

The coaches met again in San Angelo the next year for the second unofficial clinic. Young said more coaches showed up to this meeting as word started to spread around the state.

“I had to rent a meeting room at the La Quinta,” Young chuckled.

It wasn’t until 1973 that Angelo Football Clinic was officially born and the meetings moved from hotels to the campus of Angelo State University.

“That was the first time we organized it,” Young said. “It was the first time where the speaker talked uninterrupted. We would then move them to a separate room for a Q&A session. Jim Hess started that and now every clinic does that.”

The ‘inaugural’ Angelo Football Clinic drew a crowd between 30 and 40 coaches.

Now the clinic has grown into something of a Mecca for coaches across the US.

“I can’t go anywhere without someone asking who’s speaking at the clinic next year,” Young joked. “We have more and more coaches coming from out of state.”

The clinic has grown to such epic proportions that Dave Campbell’s Texas Football Magazine will be covering this year’s clinic.

Young also recalled a story of a young coach from California calling him a few years back and recalling a saying from the clinic.

“He said the phrase ‘Don’t hire based on resume. Hire based on their heart,” Young said. “That means he didn’t hire the right guys around him. I don’t remember that saying, but it’s amazing that the clinic has stuck with these coaches.”

The clinic also boast three generations of the Phillips’ coaching tree with Bum speaking in the early days, his son, Wade, speaking to the coaches in 2016 and Wade’s son, Wes, speaking at the clinic this year.

You could say Jimbo Fisher and Nick Saban are the “headliners” of this year’s clinic, but legends from the Texas high school football ranks are sure to draw a crowd themselves.

“You want to pattern yourself after the best,” Young said of the caliber of coaches at the clinic. “There are many things to do. Fundamentals never change, but there are new ways to teach fundamentals. When you gain something, you lose something. There’s about a seven year cycle before defenses catch up to a new offensive scheme and vice versa.”

Back-to-back State Championship coach, and Abilene native, Randy Allen of Highland Park in the Metroplex is set to speak to coaches.

“Randy has some answers,” Young said. “You want to listen to him. He played at Abilene Cooper and is more or less family to me. It’s been a blessing to watch his career blossom.”

Allen initially was set to retire after his March 21 announcement. Less than three weeks after his announcement, Allen decided he wasn’t going to retire and Young had a hand in Allen’s change of heart.

“I told him don’t ever retire,” Young mentioned. “I told him to make them take you out with your toes in the air.”

Two-time state champion West Orange-Stark head coach Cornel Thompson will also speak at the 45th Angelo Football Clinic. This will be the first time Thompson has spoke at the clinic.

“He’s a legend in himself,” Young said. “He told me, ‘I guess I can retire now that I’ve spoke at the Angelo Clinic.’ I told him he better not retire.”

Other notable names slated to speak at the Angelo Football Clinic include LSU defensive coordinator Dave Aranda, Texas Tech defensive coordinator David Gibbs as well as a Q&A session with the entire Texas Tech staff and North Texas offensive coordinator, and Texas Tech legend, Graham Harrell.

The three-day clinic starts on Tuesday, June 12, with registration opening at 7 a.m. before Lake Travis offensive line coach Kyle Spano speaks at 10 a.m. The clinic concludes on Thursday, June 14.

You can see Coach Jimbo Speaker June 12 at noon. He will be speaking to the San Angelo Area Aggies at Zentner's Daughter, 1901 Knickerbocker Rd. Lunch is $12 and the public is invited.