New Howard Coach John Starr Trying to Bring Old School Mentality to Hustlin’ Tigers

Chattanooga-(WDEF) John Starr was set to begin this season as an assistant at East Ridge. But when the Howard head job came open, Starr says he couldn’t resist becoming the coach at the school Reggie White played for. Starr hopes the Hustlin’ Tigers show that blue collar mentality of the school’s most famous player.
John Starr epitomizes that old school work ethic.
Said Starr-“I grew up on a small farm. I had to work from eight that morning until football practice during the summers. Then I would go practice. Then after practice I would go back and finish the stuff I had to do at the house.”
And Starr wants to give his team a taste of that old school mentality.
Said lineman Tadarius Covington-“I found out he was old school right after the jamboree. He brought us straight here, and we had to practice right afterwards.
Since Starr is building a team, why not mimic construction workers.
Said Starr-“When you look back at the old days, construction workers were the most physically imposing guys out there. That’s what they did. They swing an ax. They swung a pick. They did physical labor.”
Added lineman Udarius Strawter-“We pull tires. We use the hammer to hit the tires. We flip them. It’s a lot of different stuff that you’re not used to.”
So Starr wants his team to look like construction workers and hit like some legendary fighters.
Said Starr-“There was Joe Frazier. There was Ali and George Foreman. When they got in the ring, they went 15 rounds. They jab, jab, and punched. They didn’t do all this dancing around. You had to be a tough guy. If you wanted to win the championship back then, you had to be a tough guy.”
And the Husltin’ Tigers will run a ‘tough guy’ offense in the Wing ‘T’.
Said Starr-“We don’t do that basketball on grass. We’re going to come right at you. You know what we’re going to do. We’re going to run in it between the tackles. Make you stop us.”
Starr will try to turn around a program that has just three total wins in the last three years.
Said Starr-“We’ve got the athletic ability. We’ve got the right people to get it done. We have to keep believing and keep working at it.”