OK, so I’m back from Cleveland (where I did very little
football-related) and Las Vegas (where 90% WAS football-related). I got to
spend 6 hours in Las Vegas listening to Jim McNally, who is the Godfather of
modern NFL technique. What is very interesting now is that he’s come to realize
some things that he brought into The League are now obsolete…..and these are
things that were considered current until maybe two years ago, that 90% of us
offensive line coaches (including me) are still teaching! Well, now I
definitely have to re-do practice planning and drill prep. If any of you (and I
know there are a ton of copies floating around) have my offensive line manual,
it is now obsolete. I don’t know when I’m going to have a chance to update it,
but it needs it.
One of the great things about coaching adults is that I’ve had
some of them for upwards of ten years….the downside is that some of them could
effectively do my drills in their sleep. Now none of them can. I saw it happen
a bit last week at practice, when I started introducing some of the new stuff,
and now that I’ve had it all reinforced and cemented in my mind, it’ll only get
better. We did have one play in a limited Oklahoma drill where one of my OL got
a nice flatback using the new techniques, and you could see a little bit of a
light go off in her head, so that was nice. One of my players was in Vegas at
the clinic, and when she saw what I’d been talking about on film and explained
by Coach McNally, her light went off a little too. So I’m really excited to get
back to work!
***
I see where the “pre season WFA rankings” are out. I put
them in quotes because they are most definitely not an official thing. The only
official rankings that matter are the Massey ones, after some games have been
played, and only for seeding in the playoffs. Those are the ones I’ll pay any
attention to, as they did affect our travel last year in July. These rankings
are put together by a guy named John Spatz. John isn’t a bad pure data guy.
Once he gets some game data to work with, they might be fairly accurate. Right
now, his guess is worse than anyone else’s, because he knows little about team
dynamics and who may or may not have joined or left teams.
He has us ranked #1 overall, which is pretty funny
considering that we lost the championship game to Boston, who he has ranked 5
or 6, by what felt like a bazillion points. Then he ranks Utah, who, although I
love them as players and coaches very much, #2. Why they are ranked above
established, veteran teams like Chicago, DC or Boston, I have no idea. Of
course, those teams know as well as everyone else that these things don’t
matter a bit.
In my opinion, Chicago is LOADED with talent this year, and
Boston is still Boston until proven otherwise. I did see that some of the
Boston players have set up donation pages to help fund their season, which is
something that we’ve never seen before. The fallout of having to pay for things
like the rest of us might be interesting. Also, in the West are the Dallas
Elite, who are a reincarnation of the legendary Dallas Diamonds who were in the
national championship game as late as 2013. Because those players have proven
themselves already in the WFA, I might rank them higher than Utah as well.
Anyway, it’s all well and good, and I suppose it provided a
spark of discussion. I saw where many posted it on their timelines as a type of
trophy, and others posted it as a form of inspiration to make it on there
later. Most of us did neither.
***
On another note, have any of you seen the new series,
“Coaching Bad”, hosted by Ray Lewis on Spike TV? Holy crap, there sure are some
jerks out there! Of the eight coaches on the show, I think three or four of
them are in football, which in itself is a rather sad commentary on our sport.
To be sure, I do believe there is a huge difference in being demanding and just
being a jerk (in lieu of using a more descriptive term). I would like to think
that I am a demanding coach – lapses in effort especially irritate me, as do
repeated mistakes. But when I’m raising my voice, I can honestly say that you
won’t find a player who believes it is personal to them. They understand that
I’m not yelling at Karen or Michelle or whoever – I’m getting after the right
guard or running back.
I think a coach has to realize that mistakes will be made,
no matter how well we think we’ve explained something. If a player is making
the same mistake over and over, at some point you have to look at the way
you’re teaching it. After all, as I’ve quoted Homer Smith before, “It isn’t
what you know, it’s what your players know.” Effort of course, is a different
matter – it is the one thing that a player can control. If it is a running
drill, for example, I don’t care how inherently slow someone is. But what I
definitely do NOT want to see is that player not giving 100% or stopping before
the finish line. Doing that will get my attention in a hurry.
But getting back to the show, it is abundantly clear that
some people should never be in charge of young, impressionable players. I can
promise you that if some of the coaches on the show coached my men’s team, they
would be beaten up, without a doubt. Don’t be “that guy” as a coach!
Have a great week of practice!
