Readership of The Coach Blog seems to have increased dramatically in the past two weeks. My sincere thanks to all of you for your supportive comments and fuzzy recollections.

So there was this episode of Coach that was aired in two parts, I'm pretty sure. The main events of the episode centered around Minnesota State going to a bowl game in some tropical place like Hawaii or Florida or something. The game was a big deal because I think it was their first bowl appearance in some time, but also there was hell of personal pride on the line because Coach and the other team's coach had some sort of rocky history. I don't remember what the history was; maybe the guy was Coach's former college coach and they didn't get along, or maybe they coached against each other in some big game and there was a trick play or some questionable call and Coach was totally humiliated or whatever. In any case, I'm pretty sure the other coach had a name that had something to do with snakes, so people called him "The Snake" or "Jimmy Snake" or something. I also distinctly recall the Snake-Guy and Coach having some conversation in Coach's office where they talked about "the day the snake outwitted the fox," as though that was what the media had dubbed whatever the hell happened between them in that other football game. In this scene also I think it was established that the Snake-Guy was a total asshole. This added further to the understated implications of Coach's previous humiliation, as well as the audience's desire for Coach to beat him in football.

Anyway, so eventually the team went to wherever it was they were supposed to go and I'm sure all sorts of crazy hijinx ensued like maybe Luther had a hilariously difficult time going through airport security or whatever, but the only other thing I remember about the first part of the episode was that there was some sort of limbo competition taking place and Minnesota State's star player (the quarterback maybe?) injured his back. I don't have any idea why there would be a limbo competition taking place, or why Coach would let his players participate in such an event immediately before an important game, but for whatever reason it happened and all hope was lost for Coach, or so it seemed. This is when I think it said: "to be continued..." in an attempt to leave the audience totally in suspense.

I don't really remember what happened in the second part of the episode, except that like, on the last play of the game, the injured guy totally took off his neck-brace and stood up out of his wheelchair and went in to the game. It turns out it he wasn't injured at all. I guess Coach's big plan was to lure the Snake-Guy into some sense of false security, but it kind of seems like maybe the most terrible football strategy I've ever heard of. What could you possibly gain by benching your best player for the entire game, only to have him come in at the end? What the hell was Coach thinking? In any case, I'm pretty sure it worked for some reason and Minnesota State won the game. I think they dumped the Gatorade cooler on Coach like right as they were fading out of the scene and probably some music was playing and I think the audience applauded as if they actually cared what was happening.

The episode ended, I think, with a scene in Coach's office where the Snake-Guy comes in and says something to the effect of "blah blah blah the day the fox outwitted the snake." And then they had some sort of pointless reconciliation and then that character never appeared again on the show.