Update II - The Season

In my "Tower"

Our football season was quite a lot of work. It’s always a good experience to come to a small school as a new coach. There is often a lot of responsibility out there for the taking. The coaching staff consisted of five coaches – The head coach acted as offensive coordinator and backs/linebackers coach. We had an assistant head coach who acted as the receivers/defensive backs coach with me as an assistant. Finally we had our defensive coordinator who took on the offensive and defensive lines with one assistant coach.


Two well trained freshmen standing behind "My Line"Our team was the very definition of a young team. Of thirty-some-odd players we had three seniors and two juniors. Our largest class was the freshmen who made up over half of the team. Generally freshmen are assigned to a Junior Varsity or even a freshman team when they show up on a high school practice field. We had no option but to play them at the Varsity level. We actually had quite a few freshmen starters, especially on our special teams.

All of this youth told me a few things before the season started. Even though my heart (and the football fan inside of me) told me we would win every game by a lot, I knew that we would be losing a lot of games. Also, we would have quite a few players who would stop showing up to practice once the losing started. There is just no way that every freshman out there wants to be pounded on by people twice there size and lose every game.The Snow Bowl: One of the most beautiful places to lose four games

I turned out to be partially wrong in the best possible way. We had very few, if any freshmen quit the team. We had two seniors show up late only to quit when they were sure that we were in for it. The freshmen stuck it out through the entire year and I was very proud of them. We ended up losing every game we played against class B varsity teams. We won our first game, a scrimmage against a class C team. After that everything was a terrible loss. The scoreboard always showed a blowout no matter how the game actually went. The problem with young teams is the “big play”. We gave up so many special teams touchdowns, third and fourth down conversions, and long runs for touchdowns. We couldn’t sustain drives on offense due to a series of problems dealing with execution of basic fundamentals – a clear sign of our youth and inexperience. If only I could be here for next year’s team!

Update I - Coaching Again

I imagine that seven months after my previous post it’s time for an update. I did in fact meet with the Coach back in February. We talked a bit about me, a bit about him, and a lot about Five Town Football and the high school team. I met his son Collin, our sophomore quarterback/free safety. It’s impressive to meet a freshman in high school (at the time) that is bigger than me.

A full six months before the season started, Coach stuck to the basics of our team structure. We were expecting a good number of returning upperclassmen to the mixed varsity/junior varsity squad along with about 15 new freshmen from the feeder middle school team. Our numbers would be near 45 to start the season.

We planned on running a spread offense out of the pistol formation. The pistol is basically a short shotgun. That is, the ball is snapped to the quarterback about 3 yards behind the center instead of 5 yards like the traditional shotgun. Nevada made it famous in college football and you can read up on it on the infamous Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_football_formations#Pistol

The spread offense refers to the scheme that spreads the players out, utilizing the width of the playing field to create seams in the defense. We planned on utilizing both the run and the pass to exploit these seams. Generally a team will use their best athlete that can throw as their spread quarterback (in our case Collin) in order to create an additional running threat. Our defense was going to be a three man front utilizing our returning upperclassmen talent to free up our four linebackers.

Coach and I talked about having me coach the linebackers and quarterbacks/running backs. I have a genuine interest in influencing our linebackers, as they tend to set the tone for the attitude a defensive squad carries into a game. Alas, it was not to be - as the season approached, another coach was unable to commit for the season. I was more needed as a receivers and defensive backs coach.

That’s not the only thing that changed as the season approached. Our athletic director managed to schedule us 8 exhibition games as a class B varsity squad in a trial status. In their final season of play our returning seniors would see games under Friday Night Lights for the first time. This reminds me… much of the expected “returning upperclassmen talent” didn’t return when we started camp on August 18th. We had our work cut out for us.

Coaching Again

This week I will be meeting with the head coach of the Camden Hills Regional High School football team. I am volunteering to assist the team as a coach. I am extremely excited about this opportunity. My expectation coming in is to learn a lot more about how a high school program is organized. While I am definitely seeking the learning experience, it is important to remember that I will be a coach, and the kids will be seeking to learn from me.

There are some goals that I established for the time that I am helping out, including the off-season.

• Better myself at home, at work, and as a coach everyday
This is something that I’ve already implemented as a daily objective. If you’re not moving up, you’re losing (oh wait, that’s poker).

• Learn the system front and back and never stray from it

From reading books on coaching I have come to two conclusions. The first is that it is possible to win with less talent if you are fundamentally sound, prepared mentally and physically, and you work hard every day. The second is that you won’t win squat with all the talent in the world if your players and coaches don’t buy-in to the system in place (or if you don’t have a system).

• Allow each player to experience success daily

This is probably the best thing that any leader can do - and probably the most neglected approach by leaders. The players need to see that their actions can be successful, that the system can work, and that they can trust the coaches to communicate their shortcomings AND successes to them.

• Seek solutions and not excuses or rationalizations

This has always been my biggest problem in life. I don’t like to deal with problems I am not comfortable with. I tend to latch onto any rationalization and drown myself with it. In situations where I have stepped around excuses I have excelled at life. Also, I don’t want my procrastination or laziness to been seen by those I am trying to influence.

• Show patience and understanding in dealing with all others

If I had a dollar for every boss that failed to show me this, I’d have a lot more debt.

• Always anticipate a win, never accept a loss – expect more

This is nearly hand-in-hand with rationalizing, but slightly different. There is also a big difference between this thought and, say, walking off the field with :01 left in your Super Bowl loss.

Starting Linebacker

I started my pursuit of knowledge for coaching linebackers in football recently. I got a book from my Dad for Christmas. Coaching Linebackers: By the Experts from Coaches Choice. It features a bible compiled from various coaches throughout the NCAA including Wisconson's Barry Alvarez and Jerry Sandusky from Penn State (aka "LineBacker U").

I realized right away that I lack a lot of the very basics of football knowledge. The book started talking about "a 9 and a 5 technique, and the nose guard is in the 1 gap on the strongside". What?? I figured out the 1 gap on the strongside, but I always thought that defenses called it the Strongside A Gap. And 5 technique?! I am lost.

So I hopped on Google. I found out that the gap numbers are actually used for the alignment of defensive players. If I have a nose tackle in the 1 gap on the strongside, he is lined up on the center, but shaded to the strongside (side of the tightend) gap between the center and guard. The gaps are indeed lettered A, B, and C, and are used to assign responsibility, and not alignment. Here's a MS Paint Original Diagram -

The only thing I can figure for a "9 technique" is that the outer-most alignment must default to a nine technique. On the weakside above, where the 5 should be would actually be a 9. On the strong side, the 7 would become a 9. I am not to sure on this, but it seems to add up.

Once you know where your D-line is going to line up, it seems easy to coach the linebackers on what needs to be filled. If we have 4 D-Linemen at the 9-5-1 strong and 3 weak, we will have the strong side B and weak side A and contain(9 or C??) gaps uncovered. Another wondrous piece for you:

I am not sure if this is a legitimate formation or not, but you can see how the linebackers need to adjust according to their reads at the snap. A strongside run would bring this Middle LB into the strong B gap. What reads these linebackers have and how to train them to react to these reads I don't know yet. That's for another day.

Brandon

Edit 1/8/2007:

So this might be the actual numbering that the book was using. Odds on the left side, evens on the right, with 9 technique representing a "contain" outer most rush. Not quite sure though.