Packer: Reado continues learning through coaching

The best way to learn what a coach has to deal with is to be a coach yourself. That’s what former Tennessee offensive lineman Jarvis Reado is discovering these days. Reado is the offensive line coach at Austin-East High School and is learning every day.

“Being a coach has taught me patience,” Reado said. “My job is to get the most out of each player. I’m still learning about being a coach, but I have told my kids that I will respect them as players if they’ll respect me as their coach. It’s a tough love that I don’t guess I ever fully understood when I was a player.”

Reado is an intense coach on the sidelines. Already this season he’s let his emotions boil to the point of breaking two headsets.

“Sometimes I need to step back and get a hold of my emotions,” Reado said. “It can be so frustrating, though. You spend all week teaching kids the techniques that are necessary to win, then on Friday night they don’t execute like you thought they would. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got great kids and they’re doing a great job. But, as the coach, you expect the players to do everything right every play.”

What Reado has learned is to sympathize with what UT coach Phillip Fulmer and his coaching staff are dealing with these days.

“I get so tired of people talking about Coach Fulmer and his staff,” Reado said. “Now that I’m a coach myself, I know even more that it is up to the players to play. Coaches can’t do everything. It’s up to that individual to get it done on the field.

“I don’t really know what’s up over there at UT. I’m not sure if they have the caliber of players that we used to have.”

Reado saw plenty of talent during his days with the Vols from 1994-98.

“I think the talent is there,” Reado said. “They have the talent to be successful. I guess I agree with what (former UT player) Reggie Coleman said on your Locker Room show last Sunday night. He said that the program needs leadership among the players. Man, that is so true. I don’t think it’s as much of the fact that several players are leaders as it is that those leaders echo what the coaches are saying.

“There are two ways to handle criticism from the coaches. One way is to complain and moan about it and say that the coaches don’t know what they’re talking about. The other way is to have leaders who stand behind the coaches and tell their teammates to do it the way they’re told.

“I know that the best motivation for a player is to be on the sideline. If one guy isn’t doing it right, he needs to be standing on the sideline by the coach until he figures out what to do. I don’t know if they don’t have enough depth to stick guys on the bench when they’re not playing well or not.”

As for the dedication the coaches have toward the program, Reado has a newfound respect for what the coaches were going through when he was playing.

“When you think about the film study on your own team, the film study on the upcoming opponent, the game planning to be ready for the next game and the preparation for practice, those coaches are working 24/7,” Reado said. “I never realized that as a player. I never realized all the work that they put into it just to get to game day.

“I hear people talk about a lack of discipline with coach Fulmer. I just disagree with that. I remember that he used to sit in our position meetings when I was playing. He didn’t leave any stone unturned when it came to preparation. Those coaches had us ready to play when kickoff arrived.

“It just gets back to needing leadership on the field. I’m telling you, the coaches need players to step up and help lead, they can’t do it all.

“I know that at Austin-East we have two great leaders in Lincoln Anderson and Kenny Jones. Anderson is the one who uses his words to lead. Jones leads by example. When the coaches say something to the team, those two echo exactly what the coaches are trying to get across. I just don’t know if anyone is standing up and UT and saying that ‘This is the way it’s gonna be?

“Back in 1998, everyone thought we were going to fall apart because our leader was gone. Peyton Manning was in the NFL and no one thought we had any leadership. They couldn’t have been more wrong. We had a team full of leaders and we respected what the coaches were trying to teach us.”

Reado is just another player who thinks any blame for a lack of success should lie on the shoulders of the players, not Fulmer and his staff. Now that Reado is a coach, he seems to have a better understanding of the fact that no coach has ever put on a helmet and pads and made a tackle.

Mark Packer hosts the Locker Room, presented by Parkwest Medical Center, on Sunday at 10 p.m. on MyVLT2.