Playing Through

We had “one of those” games this week. Due to the early running clock, some INT’s returned for TD’s by our defense and a general lack of interest by the officials in enforcing a play clock, we were able to run 22 offensive plays – 18 in the first half. Yes, we ran 4 offensive plays in the second half, all of them in the 4^th quarter.

We were missing about 10 players, including many of who you see near the top of the leader board in league stats. But the one who I was most bummed about is my rookie center who probably would have gotten about 18 snaps in. As it was, the one good thing to come out of the game was the chance to play people at different positions along the OL, so if we have an emergency situation later on I won’t be so nervous.

Next week, of course is a league-wide bye week…..please ensure that you give thanks in whatever method you prefer for those who have fallen in defense of our country. After that, is our third in a row of “games that shouldn’t be played” (my opinion only) before we finish out on the road against Pacific and Central Cal.

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I was watching a DVD of the Steelers offensive line coach. He was talking about a run play that was “power/gap scheme, but without a puller”.  Once again, my eyes have been opened to different ways of thinking. What he said made perfect sense and was easy to install. My main problem with my men’s offense is deciding what to leave out…..there’s so much stuff we could do, and I think we’ll do more than most offenses, but every time I see something new, it is like “oh look – a variation on outside zone! Let’s run it!” and I take off on an ADD type of tangent.

Right now I’m thinking that 80% of my run game is going to be only four concepts: inside zone, outside zone, fly sweep and counter. It’s that other 20% that I really have to decide what I want and how much practice time do I want to put into it.

Coach also talked about a streamlined way to communicate interior and exterior looks by the defense. That is something I need to get better at for sure.

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I met with my two QB’s the other night, and I’m thankful for them. I’m not always good at seeing things from a skinny guy’s perspective. I’m pretty good at seeing the big picture and definitely good at seeing things from an OL viewpoint, but since I’ve never been a skinny guy, that outlook suffers sometimes.

I’m meeting with my OL tonight, and I’m excited for that. We start practice tomorrow night, and I’m looking forward to hitting the ground running. The first couple of practices will only have one run play (with some variations), and only about 3-5 different routes, but by the time we get to Practice 3 we’ll be putting things together.

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Just a heads up – our 2^nd annual RS Football Camp is tentatively scheduled for November 14-15. It was a great success last year, in having almost 60 athletes attend from across the country. We’ve listened to your feedback and will be making some tweaks this year, mostly in terms of field time versus class time.