Thoughts and Rants

This past week was another bye week for our playoffs before we head up to Seattle, so this will likely be a collection of thoughts that may or may not have anything to do with one another……

Reason #10231 that I prefer coaching the women’s game over the men’s game: We’re travelling up to Seattle this week. Relatively little drama, not a whole lot of worry whether or not we’ll have everyone show up. If we win, we move on. If we win all of our games, then we’re the National Champions. Those games will have spanned the best teams from coast-to-coast – the best from the West against the best from the East. *IF* we were to win, as it stands right now, we would win against a collection of the eight best teams in the country: Austin, Boston, Chicago, DC, Kansas City, Miami, us, Seattle. That’s the way a National Championship should be decided. The men’s game doesn’t do that, not even a little bit. They’re like professional boxing…..too many titles from too many confederations. No one can really say who the best is. I’ll be very confident in saying this: Whoever wins the WFA National Championship will be the best women’s football team in the world, period.

There’s another league that will hold a “World Championship” and will say that their winner is the World Champion…..and they will be, except for say the four teams in our league who make the Final Four. The teams that end up in that league’s championship game are solid teams, no doubt. But they can’t (as shown by history) hold up to the very best teams from our league.

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After our last win, I kept hearing from others that we’re “just a bunch of all stars” which is why we won. Yes, we have a whole lot of talented players. But why didn’t anyone worry about all that talent when they were playing for their previous teams? Heck, the teams in Los Angeles historically have had the most talent in the league for years and years. We were 10-4-1 against one of them since 2003, and 7-0 against another since 2011. Based on pure talent, there was no way we should have beaten one of them, especially last year. But we did – twice. But now let some of those players come down to us where they get coached up a bit and all of a sudden everyone says it is unfair, or that is their excuse for losing to us. No one cares about the players who went to other teams; no one calls those teams full of all stars, even if it was in equal amounts, because those teams are done for the year already. I guess sometimes people need to rationalize because it is easier than facing shortcomings.

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Kind of in the same vein, there are a ton of teams out there that are pretty good…..until you watch their OL or DL. Until some of these coaches get serious about developing their OL, they’re never going to be truly elite teams. You look at Boston, Chicago and DC – their OL’s are beastly! I think ours is pretty good too, although there are some things I wished we could do better. But I was looking at some film of a prospective opponent against another playoff team, and that “other” team ran a play where their QB rolled out to the left (whether it was designed or not I couldn’t tell), and their LG was not only standing in place, but looking straight downfield, like she was watching the sun set! My players know that the one thing that will torque me in a heartbeat is them being lazy.

We saw that a lot in the All Star game last year. I talked to the OL we had on the American team and was shocked when they talked about either 1) their lack of an OL coach, 2) their lack of individual time given them in practice or 3) what they weren’t being taught. Some were being taught techniques I hadn’t seen since the 80’s and most had no idea of the effort required by an elite team in terms of hustle and second-and-third level blocks.

To their credit, they took to the challenge and gave it their best, but there’s only so much you can fix in one practice while also trying to prepare for a game.

Look, I know a lot of this sounds awfully elitist of me, and although I try not to be that way, sometimes you gotta tell it like it is. We’re all familiar with the quote “It all starts up front” and it is absolutely true. If my OL can neutralize your pass rush and we can release five receivers on every play, we’ve got an advantage. If our DL can get pressure on your QB while only sending four, we’ve got an advantage, especially if you’re keeping in 6 or even 7 to protect. It doesn’t really matter how good the rest of your team is, if they’re playing at a numerical disadvantage you’re in trouble.

So coaches…..before you complain about our all stars, consider how they got to be that way, and start taking your OL seriously. With almost everyone done for the year now, it’s time to figure out how you’re going to bet better in the off-season not only for yourself, but your players. How are you going to improve yourself? Here’s my plan:

1.       I’ve got 135 OL coaching DVD’s to watch this offseason. I’ve mentioned them before ( here and here). It was 126 in those posts, but I’ve now bought the newest ones from this year’s clinic as well. I was talking with John Konecki the other day and he has them all as well. If for no other reason for me to watch them, I want to make sure that I’m not missing a trick for my players that he’s giving his. Competition at the highest levels is a great thing!

2.       I’m going to de-construct my playbook down to the ground and rebuild it. I’ve noticed some weaknesses and contradictions in places and I think I can make things better overall, while adding flexibility.

3.       In addition to the camp we’re doing in November (preliminary info here), I’m hoping to do a free OL clinic for the youth coaches for a local league. How does this qualify as making me better? Because the more you teach, the more you learn. The more diverse your audiences are, the better you get at adapting to them and getting your points across in an understandable way.

4.       I’ll continue to go to every coaches clinic I can, just as I have for the last 23 years. Not only to see the people speaking, but to talk to the other attendees and see what they’re doing.

So….that’s my plan. What’s yours? How are you going to compete better next year?