Women's Recap & Off-season news

The two main women’s leagues wrapped up their season last weekend. As expected, the Utah Falconz dispatched the Minnesota Vixen 49-6 to win the IWFL league championship. I really do hope Utah and the WFA can work out whatever differences they have to get the Falconz in with the rest of the best teams in the country. If not, go ahead and pencil in the Falconz as 2017 league champs as well. And maybe 2018, 2019 and 2020.

OK, speaking of the WFA, fans were treated to another great National Championship game there. In a repeat of last year’s finale, the DC Divas came from behind to beat the Dallas Elite, 28-26. Dallas went up early 12-0 and at that time it looked like déjà vu of the regular season’s Week 2, where Dallas beat DC by 21. However, it is tough to beat a good team twice in the same year. When I was talking with one of my former players just before the game, I said I had no idea who would win. And it turned out to be a great game. I cannot congratulate the Divas enough – coming back after being down early is always a tremendous accomplishment, and I’m happy for my friends in the organization.

I also feel bad for my friends within the Elite. Back-to-back trips to the championship game in your first two years is a great feat (the Surge did it as well; losing to Boston in ’11, then beating Chicago in ’12) but in final games, it is absolutely gut-wrenching to watch it slip away.

The good news is that the Women’s Game is getting more and more press and exposure each year. A play from the Minnesota/New York playoff game even made the ESPN SportsCenter Top 10 recently. Some American players are heading overseas the lend their expertise and leadership, and some coaches are going to, to help out national teams. The 2017 World Games might be interesting next year!

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Speaking of the off-season, as you may have thought, there is no RS Football Camp this year. With no player or coach base to start from, there wasn’t much reason to ask everyone to travel here. However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t opportunities this fall/winter!

Coach Scott McCarron of the Seattle Majestics and I both attended one of LeCharles Bentley’s offensive line coaching seminars (unfortunately not at the same time – that would have been fun) this spring, and I owe him a trip since he came down to the RS Camp last year. We’ve talked briefly about maybe doing something up there this off-season, if for no other reason than to drill his OL in the new system and drills we picked up.

Additionally, I’m available for weekend trips anytime after November 19, until pretty much the 1^st of March. Whether you want your OL tuned up, whether you want to install a new offense, meet with your coaches, do a special teams clinic, or anything else you can think of, I’m game. As far as cost, it’s a lot cheaper for me to come to you and coach 30 people, than it is for 6 or 7 of your team to come to me. You could blend the cost into your team fees and barely have it register (about $25 per person for a group of 30, all inclusive, and assuming a plane trip).

Anyone that is interested, I’ll be happy to send my résumé and we can discuss exactly what you’re looking for. Everything is tailored to your team. Anything from just a nudge to get you over that “one last” opponent to getting your team of rookies ready to go, I can help.

What I’m even more excited about is the start of a weekly off-season Big Person camp. It’ll start either late December or right after New Years – I’m flexible on that. The goal is for “any” adult offensive lineman, male or female, to work solely on stance, body movement and biomechanics in a non-contact, learning environment. The cost will be “Free-99”. My main goal, of course, is to get my Nighthawk OL coached up and better than ever in stuff that I just don’t have time to teach during the season. The secondary goal is to get any and all female OL to a great level on the basics. More on that after the Nighthawk season is over.

Finally, the Nighthawks have a big game this weekend against the Riverside County Disciples. You’ll hear all about that next week!

End of an Era

Just before last week’s blog post came out, the San Diego Surge announced that it was going to take a year off to regroup and get back to a competitive state. For the Surge, that means either Elite 8 or Final Four status – levels that we reached every year since 2011. In five seasons, the Surge made three national championship appearances (2011, 2012, 2014) and winning one (2012). In 2015 we made the Final Four, and only in 2013 did we end up at the Elite 8 level. That’s a pretty good run, and I’d put only Boston’s two national titles up over our record in that same time period.

In my opinion, women’s football is way too costly of a sport to do at a recreational level, so I applaud the Surge ownership for being willing to take a step back.

So, in the spirit of nostalgia, I thought I’d count down my Top Six Favorite Surge games:

2013 Season Opener: We played the Pacific Warriors on the road in Week One. We were breaking in a new, inexperienced QB along with a lot of rookie WR. But we had a very solid OL and an outstanding WR/RB. It was my year as the offensive coordinator, and we learned quickly that we weren’t going to be able to run our typical Surge offense. So we settled on a Fly Sweep-based attack that played to our strengths. Calling plays in that offense required a lot of patience…you had to be able to accept consistent 4-6 yard gains. That may not be a problem for some people, but we were used to a lot more lightning-strike types of plays. But we did have our fun that game: First play was a play-action pass for a nice gain, we hit them with a hook-n-lateral for a key first down, and then scored the clenching TD on a “fake WR screen and go” the play after they jumped on a WR screen that was nullified by a penalty. Final score 28-14 Surge.

2011 American Conference Championship: 2011 was the first year of the Surge, breaking away from the SoCal Scorpions. We were pretty loaded with talent, but we weren’t sure exactly how much. The season was rife with blow-out wins so we weren’t really tested. The Dallas Diamonds came into town full of optimism – they were very talented and had a great legacy themselves. In addition to winning a few national titles in the early-to-mid 2000’s (the Scorpions put an end to that in 2007), they went and won another one in 2008. The Diamonds were itching for redemption and completely believed they could pull it off. Unfortunately for them, they had absolutely no answer for our overall team speed. We probably had the four or five fastest people on the field. I honestly forget the exact final score, but I want to say it was in the 41-14 range.

2011 National Championship: This game was far from my favorite, but it was valuable. Going up against the Boston Militia was an eye-opening experience. Remember that we were coming off a big win against a team that we thought was pretty good. Our confidence was high. Boston was big, fast and athletic and on top of that, extremely well-coached. They basically ran a version of the “walkaround” defense where maybe only one or two players have their hand in the dirt and the others just sort of wander around presnap, never giving you a good read on who was coming and who wasn’t. The final score was 34-19 for the Militia. The reason the game was so valuable to us is that it gave us a laser-like focus going into 2012. We decided as a staff that if all else was equal, we were going to implement a play, or drill or scheme that would help us beat Boston – that was the only thing that mattered to us.

2014 National Championship: Again, we faced Boston. The reason this makes it into my Top Six is solely because it was a National Championship. How many players or coaches can say they’ve even been in one, let alone three in four years? We were OK on offense, except for one thing: fumbles, early and often. We definitely had depth issues though, and ran out of gas on defense. Although we put up 35 points, it wasn’t nearly enough. Final score Boston, 64-35.

2012 American Conference Championship: This game was, to us, simply a repeat of the previous year’s American Conference Championship versus Dallas. To Dallas though, it was something much, much bigger. They were flying high once again, having averaged well over 60 points a game. Their head coach did a remarkable job of hyping his team and players. And they definitely had some horses on offense. But in 2012 we were absolutely stacked – 48 players, no one playing both ways (well, one exception for this game), and just real, real good up front on both sides of the ball. Yes, they scored more than anyone else did on us up to that point, but it was only 20 points…..we scored more on them then they’d given up all year – 48. And yes, we enjoyed that victory very much.

2012 National Championship: This was a no-brainer, and really for any fan of women’s football, this should at least be in their own Top 3 (even for a Chicago fan) because it was just that good of a game. Playing in Pittsburgh’s Heinz Field was an event in itself. That year, in addition to being the OL coach, I was also the ST Coordinator. We ran back the opening kickoff for a TD, then scored twice more to take a 20-0 lead. However, the Force was very, very good as well. They stormed back to take a 26-20 lead. Eventually they pushed their lead out to 9, 36-27 with about 3:00 minutes left in the game. We converted a 4^th and 12 by about 6”, and then the next play was about a 60-yard TD catch and run. With the extra point, we were down 36-34. Chicago got the ball, and our defense stiffened and we were helped by a dropped pass on 3^rd down. Chicago had to punt and once again special teams came up huge – we returned it for a TD. We missed the 2 point conversion, so were up 40-36 with about 1:30 left. Yet again, ST came to the fore, as we pinned the Force on their own five yard line. As it would turn out, we needed every yard we could get, as Chicago started methodically marching down the field, completing four straight passes to get down to about our 20 with :17 on the clock. They tried one more, and we picked it off to seal the victory. What a game.

But beyond the scores, and other games, the best part of this whole thing is, as always, the relationships you develop. That’s what I’ll miss and be looking forward to when the Surge comes back. 

National Championship & Other Thoughts

Monday night was a great college football game. For whatever reason, I enjoy college ball so much more than the NFL version. Normally I root for teams that I either feel an allegiance to (SDSU, Texas A&M) or to coaches who have helped me out over the years (changes as jobs change). I don’t particularly like either Nick Saban or Lane Kiffin, but I certainly respect Coach Saban’s process, not to mention his results. So last night, I went purely SEC rooting.

Last week I picked Alabama in a close one, mostly due to their Big Game experience and Coach Saban. I was glad to see that special teams played a huge part in the outcome, with one of the best-executed onside kicks I’ve seen, and a nice kickoff return for a score. 

Special teams matter! I thought that overall, Clemson outplayed Alabama…I mean, the things that Deshaun Watson did to that formidable Tide front seven….and the even worse abuse of ‘Bama’s offensive line (their poor RT must be having nightmares still). But in the end, the Tide can smile because fortunately for them, football is a whole team game.

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Looking at the NFL playoffs, again you saw an instance of where special teams matter (Minnesota/Seattle). I have no idea how much the laces affected the kick, I don’t know how much the wind did, and I don’t know if the kicker simply shanked it. In any case, I’m not sure there’s another example in all of sports where you go from almost certain joy to deepest despair in such a short amount of time as you do when a kicker misses a chip shot field goal. I mean, on a Hail Mary type of pass you have hope that it’ll work, but I’m not sure you really “expect” it to, you know? On a 25-yard field goal, you pretty much expect it to go.

And don’t let anyone tell you that character doesn’t matter in football either. We probably all saw the Bengals absolute implosion Saturday night. Right now, I’m thinking that players who show a history of undisciplined behavior aren’t the ones you want to lean on when the pressure builds – they don’t know how to handle it. I see that all the time at my level of coaching. Guys that have a ton of talent but can’t control themselves on or off the field, and wonder why they never got a shot at a higher level of play.

I try and tell young guys that the “talent pyramid” gets narrower and narrower the higher you go, and there’s not room for everyone. Guys fall outside the pyramid for all sorts of different reasons. Your job as a player is to make sure that the only reason you fall outside is lack of talent. You can improve your technique, you can have a perfect attitude, you can be the best student of the game (or have the best grades in school) ever….but at some point, you’re probably not fast enough, not big enough or just not athletic enough – all genetic things out of your control. If you let yourself fall outside the pyramid for things you can control, then it’s on you, and you alone. Deal with it, learn from it and move on.

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Finally, my men’s team, the San Diego Nighthawks, picked up a new coach that might just change everything for us this year. Our new Passing Game Coordinator is former Texas A&M, former Viking and former Panther WR/QB Jason Carter. Coach Carter was most recently the head coach at La Jolla High.

His hiring points to a couple of things: First, it ensures that our WR’s and QB’s will get as much detailed coaching as our OL traditionally has. That just wasn’t something that I was able to provide the skinny guys. Right there, we’ve gotten better! 

Second, and most importantly to me, is that I’ll now have a living, breathing example of how exactly to install and implement a true no huddle, up tempo approach. I’ve never been on a staff where anyone else has actually done that. I’ve read books, I’ve gone to lectures, I’ve asked other coaches how to do it, but I think until you actually experience it for yourself, you’re not quite sure of how it’ll all go down. So even if we have Coach temporarily (I hope it’ll be at least a couple of seasons), I plan on learning as much from him as possible.

And that’s part of the key to success…..divest yourself of your ego, coaches, and don’t be afraid to hire people who may be better than you at some phase of the game. I gave up some control I didn’t have to as the OC in order to get better, and make our team better. Whether you do that for a season, or for a weekend mini-camp, the end result is that you and your team will be better for it.

Wrapping up - almost!

Sorry I missed last week – I was on vacation. I fully planned on writing something anyway, but when Tuesday night rolled around and I had nothing….well, that’s what you got! Heads up, it’ll happen again in the middle of February when I head back to Cleveland for a little while, and then to Vegas for the Glazier clinic.

We saw an epic football game between the Packers and Seahawks a couple of weekends ago. Shawn Slocum, the Green Bay ST coach, is an old acquaintance, from back in ’96 when I visited Texas A&M for the first time. Then, he was maybe into his second year as a full time coach. He was a good guy, and I certainly feel for him now. Pat Ruel, with the Seahawks, has helped me out even longer – since 1993, when he was at Kansas. He is one of the nicest, classiest guys in the business and I count myself lucky to have been taught by him early in my career, and then on occasion whenever I had an issue. Pat has always been gracious with his time. So…..go Seahawks!

The other thing that came to mind is “situational football”. Similar to the ‘Bama-Auburn game of a year ago, with the failed FG being returned for a TD, there were situations in that game that could have been handled better by the players involved. I bet the Packer player that intercepted the ball late wishes now he would have run for the 20-30 more yards he easily could have. At the time, no one probably thought too much about him downing himself, thinking, “OK, he didn’t want to take a chance on fumbling the ball.” However, unlike the Chargers/Patriots playoff game in 2007 (or whenever, it is a painful memory) when a Chargers player was returning an INT late, got into traffic and then fumbled, this Green Bay player had LOTS of open field in front of him. The lesson? Take the free yardage! There was what – about 5:00 left? That’s too much time to be thinking that you’re in the clear and can afford to give up yards. The real reminder here, to you coaches out there, is that you need to at least cover these things with your players! They may not remember, they may brain fart, but trust me – it’s going to come back to you – did you cover that situation or not?

The other situation was the onside kick return that failed for the Packers. I haven’t gone back and looked at the film to confirm yet, but from what I understand, Jordy Nelson was in position to field the ball that was dropped by a player who was supposed to be blocking. Now, the player in question had an 80 number….but if there’s a play on, then do your job! I’m not sure how he was coached in that case, but if he didn’t do what he was coached to do, there’s a problem. Who knows “what if” but generally speaking, plays work out better when everyone does their own jobs instead of trying to do someone else’s.

Last Friday night, I presented the offensive changes I’ve been working on since September to the Bears (my men’s team) offensive staff. The defensive staff was there as well, and had some questions and “what ifs” and it was a good give ‘n take. You know, when you make these types of changes, you (at least I do) go through that first presentation in your head countless times, trying to smooth out the kinks. After all, as the OC, it is your job to sell the rest of the staff. At this point, I wasn’t looking for input as far as possible changes are concerned. I’d already gone over any possible question in my head. Once we get things installed, then I’m open to tweaks of course, but first things first: Get the basics down and installed, get everyone comfortable with the new terminology, and then we can look at things that can be streamlined or tweaked.

I got a little pushback from my QB. He’s a good guy and we work well together. He’s concerned about how the guys will react to new terminology. I can understand that – I’m a little concerned also. But for big picture thinking, what we had was too confining. He (and the rest of the team) are going to have to trust me when I say that everything will be installed in a flow. The first couple of practices, the defense may get after us a little, because we’ll be limited in what we run. But that’s OK….I don’t think I’m going to get fired if our defense kicks our butt a couple of practices. But I may if the Hollywood Stars or Inglewood Blackhawks do! Again, it is my job as the OC to sell the team just like I did the staff.

Sunday was spent meeting with the Surge offensive staff. We’re going to a new communication system there. I’m excited to see how it works out. I’m also excited to be back down on the sidelines. When I call plays, I prefer being up top, detached from the chaos that sometimes a sideline can be. But when we do something well, I sure miss the emotion down there! I’ll have some new people on my OL for the Surge, so it’ll be nice to be able to talk to them as a unit more than I have the past couple of years.

See you next week! Remember, I’m always open to answer questions or talk about topics that you want to see.

Camp Update and Random Stuff

First of all, some camp updates: While we don’t need you to pay in advance the $20, you may want to definitively post on our Facebook event page (HERE) that you are coming and what t-shirt size you’d like. We do need to get that order in fairly soon and want to ensure that we have enough of your size. Remember, your t-shirt is included in the $20 cost. Yes, I know – we’re awesome.

Things you need to plan for, if you haven’t already:

1. Transportation to San Diego.

2. Transportation within San Diego. If you’ve never used Lyft, here is a code for your first ride: MARK9202. You can download the app, and put in the code in the payment section. The code will get you $25 off your first ride, so going from the airport to the field/hotel won’t cost much. Most Lyft cars can take up to four, so one of you can use the code from the airport, and someone else can use it on the way back to the airport. Even if you’ve used Lyft, it is a lot cheaper than taxis.

3. Hotel. Here is the link to the hotel. We don’t have a special rate, but the cost the last time we checked was in the $80 range, so for 4 people, it’s pretty good. There are only 47 rooms though. So book them already! Obviously, if you know people here, then you may have other options.

4. Food – We’re having lunches brought in both Saturday and Sunday. The final cost hasn’t been determined, but should be in the $7 range, and it is goooood. Think Hawaiian style chicken and BBQ. There are places very close to the field as well, but remember that we are having presentations during a good portion of lunch both days, so you’ll want to hustle back.
For dinner, again there are several places very close to the hotel. One of them, Margarita’s Mexican Food, will have discount coupons on registration. This is where we hold our 5^th Quarter after games, and it is pretty good and reasonably priced. It is right across the street from the hotel, as is a pizza place and some fast food places.

In a nutshell, we’re trying to provide you all with the maximum amount of information and learning with a minimum of cost. We’re controlling what we can the very best we can. Any excess funds after we pay for the field and t-shirts will be going back to the coaches that traveled in. We appreciate their willingness to pay for their travel with little in the way of guaranteed payback. That is why we selected who we did, because of their passion for teaching and a love for the game.

So – let us know that you’re coming on our Facebook page!

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What a crazy week in college football, huh? Not only all the Top 10 teams that lost, but did you see that Cal-Washington State score? 60-59! Cal returned two kickoffs for TD’s in that game. Washington State fired their ST Coordinator on Monday. True story….special teams matter!

I wonder if everyone in Mississippi is still drunk? That’s a party that should have gone on for a long time! The last time both State and Ole Miss were both ranked in the top 10 was 1958. And the last time in the top 5? That would be never. Congratulations to both teams, because they are both playing lights out.

When was the last time your defense actually practiced a Hail Mary defense drill? Do you think that USC will ever NOT practice it again? Details, folks, details. These things need to be practiced just like anything else.

In the NFL, there can be no further doubt that it is a QB-driven league. All you had to do was watch the San Diego – New York Jet game. Holy moly, are the Jets’ QB’s bad. Not much talent around them either, but their play was just atrocious. And on the flip side, you have Philip Rivers who isn’t in the mold of the modern dual-threat type of QB, but is really, really efficient.

I believe that in the women’s game you can mask a weak-throwing QB. You’ve gotta be pretty creative, but it can be done. I don’t know that you can win a national championship without a pretty darn good one, but you can be better than average and competitive.

That’s about it for this week – there’s some great games coming up this weekend as well, so I’m sure there will be lessons to be learned!

More Truisms

Saw some other “nuggets of knowledge” in action this past weekend of watching ball at all levels:

1

    Know and understand your options!

First in the college game. Texas was playing UCLA. UCLA won the toss and deferred their decision to the second half. Texas elected to kick……I have no idea what went through the captain’s mind, and I don’t know if the ref said, “Are you sure?” But this brings back in focus the need for reminders, no matter how many times things may have been done in the past. The Texas captain who made that call could have easily been more focused on his upcoming game responsibilities than the seemingly mundane issue of the coin toss. Or maybe there was a supermodel out there doing the toss. Who knows? The fact remains that Texas kicked off to start both halves, giving up a possession during a 20-17 loss. I’m sure that Charlie Strong or the ST Coordinator, or both, are kicking themselves today.

   Know the mechanics.

I was watching a youth game this weekend. It got down to the point of where the team I was rooting for was trying to milk the clock to ice the game with a 2-point lead. I know the coach was telling the QB to take his time. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a great understanding of who on the officiating crew had the play clock signal, and a delay penalty ensued. Now, in this particular case, I saw the back judge/umpire hold his hand out straight to the side which is the normal indicator for five seconds left, but the referee threw the flag one second later. So this may easily have been a case of the officiating crew not having a great understanding of who had the clock as well.

My point in this case is that the pre-game meeting with the officials is important for things like that. Especially if you don’t know the crew, you want to ask them how they do things like the play clock, or where (if you use NFL or college hashes on a high school marked field) they will mark the ball on wide plays. I’ve been surprised a couple of times the first time we run a play to the sideline and then think we’ll have enough room to go back the same way, only to find out we’re ALL the way out on the high school hash.

Also, don’t forget to talk about your weird formations or trick plays. You don’t want an illegal formation or an illegal man downfield penalty because you surprised the officials as much as you did the other team. Same thing with your trick plays. Just let the crew know that you call them and to be easy on the whistle.

Finally talk about your tempo. If you’re no huddle you’ll really need their help in keeping the pace you want. With that, make sure you coach up your chain crew! Nothing worse than being at home and having to wait for them to stroll down the field. That is something you can control, so reward those guys/gals for doing a good job for you.

   The Passing game starts with protection.

I know from first-hand experience about the fascination with nice, clean, long routes in the passing game. But I’m also constantly reminded of my first mentor, Coach Mike Barry (then with USC) who said way back in 1992: “Just remember that for every inch of route that the QB coach or OC draws out on paper that it is 1 second of pass protection.”

I wrote about the pass pro schemes I’ve used in the past here (Part 1) and here (Part 2), but the above truism was painfully (for Colin Kaepernick) driven home Monday night with San Francisco and Indianapolis. The Colt defensive end was just teeing off on the 49’er RT. It was pretty bad. The RT was standing in as tough as he could, I think, but it was just a physical mismatch.

On Sunday, I saw the Chargers’ rising star of a RT, DJ Fluker, get beat pretty quickly by a Seattle DE. DJ’s mistake certainly wasn’t in a physical mismatch – it’ll be a rare DE that just physically overpowers him, but in Fluker’s footwork. He opened up right away and gave the DE a straight shot to Philip Rivers. This is a very common error – maybe the most common for a tackle, and it just goes to show that it can happen at any level of play. I know for certain he wasn’t coached to do that!

The teaching point here is that as an OL coach, you need to develop a library of pass protection drills and hammer those correct movements into your OL. Many people look at holding penalties as being drive killers – well, at least then you get to replay the down. A sack loses the distance, the down and potentially your QB’s confidence and/or health!

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We’ve had some great responses to our camp in November. Keep the dates open – November 15 and 16. Camp details are here and the Facebook event is here.

We just added a kicking coach to our roster , so will have something for them as well. If your kicker also plays another position, then she can go between positions as she wishes. If she is solely a kicker, then she could potentially get a full day’s worth of semi-private instruction.

I would encourage you all to seriously consider attending. The WFA has added two teams that will be well represented at the camp, both with players and instructing coaches: the Dallas Elite and the Utah Falconz. Both of those teams will immediately contend for supremacy in the American Conference.

Remember, the camp is for both players and coaches. Coaches can treat it like a 3D coaching clinic! You are welcome to be out on the field during drills and in the huddle during team or 7-on-7 times. Film whatever you want. Just don’t get run over!

Thinking Out of the Box

The  discussion a couple of weeks ago here about parity in women’s football garnered quite a bit of attention – I had more than twice as many page views in one day as I had on any other, and that particular blog post has already become the most viewed post on my site. So thanks, I think!

One of the discussions that week was about strategy related to special teams. I see many coaches new to women’s football (and some that aren’t so new) look at special teams solely in the traditional manner, i.e., they punt when they think they’re supposed to punt, they kick off deep when they think they’re supposed to kick off deep and they kick an extra point when they think they’re supposed to.

Now, there are valid reasons for doing all of those actions, but I think that each team should probably reevaluate the rote nature of those playcalls. For example: We played one team twice last year, and were pretty familiar with them. They had a coach new to the women’s game, having come from the collegiate ranks. He did some good things, but his punting decisions weren’t one of them. Why? Because his long snapper had more hang time on her snaps than their punter did! Every one of their punts was either done under extreme pressure or resulted in a snap over the punter’s head. In many of their situations they would have been much better served just trying to go for it on 4^th down. I mean, he had to know his long snapper was erratic at best, right?

Even if a long snapper is good, that doesn’t necessarily mean you should punt. Why? Because in the women’s game you’re very lucky if you can get a gross yardage of 20-25 with any consistency. Subtract out the return and very many times the other team ends up with the ball near where your yard to make was. You could’ve gone for it, and even if you came up short been in the same position you find yourself after the return.

Let me point out that going for it on 4^th down is not limited to the women’s game at all, nor is it a new concept. Coach Don Markham (http://www.coachmarkham.com/)  and Coach Myron Miller (http://www.ocvarsity.com/ocvarsity/miller-66059-tustin-coach.html) both high school coaches of note in the Inland Empire and Orange County for many years, decided to forego punting and kicking extra points. Coincidentally, both of them ran the Double Wing offense.

Coach Markham once described his practice plans this way: “We do offense for 90 minutes, defense for 30 minutes, and special teams during pregame.”

Coach Miller told me about his philosophy while we were both scouting a common opponent: “I go for two every time, and only punt if I’m backed up inside my 30.”

One coach who has gotten a lot of attention recently is Kevin Kelley of the Pulaski Academy in Little Rock, Arkansas. He runs a no-huddle spread offense, rarely kicks deep, never punts and doesn’t field punts. There is an excellent link here that talks about the math and a video about his philosophy: http://www.footballstudyhall.com/2013/11/15/5105958/fourth-down-pulaski-academy-kevin-kelley

For us, we’re in sort of a unique situation – we have relatively talented offenses and defenses, and we have a decent long snapper. For some reason we’ve always been blessed with a good long snapper – for many years I think we had the best in the country in Cilena Mosley. However, we’ve never had a punter quite at that level. We’ve always had decent kickers, but our punting has never been more than the 25 yard gross I mentioned earlier. So choosing not to punt became sort of our thing starting in 2011. For the most part, it worked out well, but the two times it didn’t it was in front of the whole country (relatively speaking): In the 2011 WFA Championship game against Boston, we chose not to punt twice while backed up in our own territory and both times we ended up giving up touchdowns. While those points weren’t the deciding ones, they did contribute to what would have been a very close game appearing to be much more one-sided.

We tend to take the same approach on kickoffs, kicking squibs or onsides in some form much more often than most teams do. When your “deep” kicks generally only reach the 25, and you add in a modest 10 yard return, we feel that you might as well trade one less first down that needs to be made for a chance at getting the ball back.

The going for two part is more of an evolving thought process for us. As I mentioned, we have always had good kickers, and currently have an All American in Melissa Strother. So unlike many teams, we can make extra points fairly consistently. The question then becomes, “do we want to”? There is something to be said for being able to get two points on a consistent basis and really putting pressure on another team. My men’s team lost a game last year 24-21 when our opponent went for and got two points each of their three TD’s. We went up 7-0, but then was down 8-7, then 16-7. We came back to 16-15, then missed our final two point try and lost by three. Their success on going for two was instrumental in that victory.

These strategies spill over to our practice time as well. We prioritize according to what we tend to do the most. So we practice kickoff quite a bit. We work the heck out of punt return. We work on onside kick return quite a bit. As the playoffs come, we traditionally then start focusing on the possibility that we’ll need to punt and return more kicks. In the WFA championship game of 2012, we punted a few times, and returned a kick for a TD, so that extra practice leading up to that game came in handy. The point is that special teams should be just like your offense in deciding practice time allocation. Would you practice an offensive play over and over again if you were only going to run it once or twice a game, on average?

Sometimes, your strategies are dictated by your personnel. You may not have a kicker, so will always go for two by default. Maybe you run a Double Wing offense and are never in 4^th and long situations, so maybe you’ll feel more comfortable in going for it on 4^th down. All I’m saying is to consider these seemingly unorthodox strategies, and have a reason for either doing them or not. 

Specials Revisited

Obviously, this last week in college football the game of the week (or year) was the Iron Bowl between Alabama and Auburn. The improbably ending will be talked about for awhile. By fans, the “wow” factor will be the topic, but on coaching staffs around the country I think (or would hope) that a slightly different conversation takes place.

Previous to that game, the only other time I can remember a failed field goal being returned for a touchdown was when Antonio Cromartie did it for the Chargers against the Vikings in 2009 or so. Because it didn’t end the game the way the Iron Bowl return did (I think the Chargers won by 21), that play went mostly into the “oh cool” category and was forgotten relatively quickly. But the Iron Bowl play – that one will not be soon forgotten. Why? Because it potentially cost Alabama a couple of million dollars and potentially earned Auburn the same amount. Once you start talking about consequences and rewards of that nature, if a similar situation came up, the head coach/athletic director/general manager/team owner (in other words, every boss the ST coach has) is going to want to know how you prepared for it, or how you allowed that to happen.

So….what’s the solution? Well first, I think you have to look at the cause.  After the Iron Bowl, Auburn’s head coach, Gus Malzahn, said “We knew we’d only have to block about four guys.” What did he mean? Look at the makeup of a typical field goal team: You have four definite offensive linemen. Good blockers, poor in-space tacklers. You have a holder and a kicker – neither of which are renowned for their tackling skills. That’s six players you’re really not worried about. The long snapper could possibly be a linebacker or tight end type – depending on which determines his tackling ability, but he’s probably better than the other six. Then you have two tight ends and two wing backs, who are probably receiver types – good athletes, but probably still not true defensive players.

I think the solution is obvious, but there are some qualifications. The solution would be to populate the field goal team with defensive players who would have a better chance of covering a kick. The question is, for how many field goals? If you’re going to do that, do you do it all the time in order to save practice time? If so, how much are you giving up in protection? If you only do it for a few kicks (maybe in the NFL, any kick over 57-58 yards?), how much time do you devote to practicing it, versus the payoff? I think you’d get different answers on that – but I bet you Nick Saban will certainly consider it, and probably a bunch of NFL special teams coaches will as well.

In the women’s game, is it worth it? So often the OL and DL play on both sides of the ball anyway. Plus, with women, anything over about 35 yards (ball being kicked from the 25) would be considered “ultra long”. Given that condensed space, does it make it easier to cover a kick with your standard field goal team?

In general, I think any team that is a two-platoon team should consider it. Men’s teams at all levels should consider it probably more than women’s teams do. Of course if you have an exceptional female kicker, then your probability rises.

The main point is, if you’re a ST coach and you get into an ultra-long FG situation and you don’t have a plan, and you get “Auburned” you’ll probably be out of a job.

Special Teams Shout Out

One thing I don’t mention very much is that I was the Special Teams Coordinator for the San Diego Surge in 2012. For the most part, I feel that it still isn’t my area of expertise so I tend to stay away from it. However, I remain extremely proud of that Surge Teams unit, and did learn a few things from coaching them.

If you saw the 2012 WFA championship game between us and the Chicago Force in Heinz Field, you saw what ESPN would call an “Instant Classic” and deservedly so. The Surge jumped out to a 20-6 lead (fueled by an opening kick-off return for a TD), then watched as the Force climbed back into the game and eventually took a 9-point lead, 36-27 with 3:19 left in the game.

We converted a 4^th and 12 (by about 6”) and on the next play hit a 60-yard TD pass to bring us within 2, 36-34. Our defense then coaxed a 3-and-out, forcing a punt. We returned the punt for a TD, putting us up 40-36. (Punt Return for TD)The 2-point conversion failed.

On the ensuing kickoff, with about 1:15 left, we pinned them on the 5 – which is unheard of in the women’s game. And it’s a good thing, because we ended up needing every one of those yards. 3 plays later, the Force was on our 15. Needing a touchdown with 0:17 left on the clock, they tried one more pass and we picked it off.

So yes – game for the ages. But notice the special teams contributions: kick return for a TD, punt return for a TD, then excellent kick-off coverage to make them go 95 for the win.

When you think about how most teams practice special teams (if this doesn’t apply to you, congratulations), you get 10, 15 or 20 minutes each practice, or maybe just once a week to get things done. Usually, from what I’ve seen, it is spent running each team out on the field and getting two or three full-team reps against air.

I don’t think that is the best use of your time! There are certain skills in the Teams just like any other position. If you’re a gunner on punt, you’ve got to find a way to beat what is basically double press coverage down the field. If you’re an edge rusher on either of the kick blocking teams, you have to be able to pick out your block point and get to it quickly. If you’re on the kick off team, you have to be able to identify what the return is doing, beat your first level blocker, then make a quick decision on how to handle the second-level blocker. A player on kick return may not be used to blocking in space, and needs to be drilled on that. The list goes on and on.

What many teams are doing now is a form of a circuit. Each coach has a rotating group of players who move from station to station. The coach assigned to a particular drill or skill gets really good at teaching and drilling that in a hurry, so your time is spent much more efficiently. Plus, when it is a skill that translates over to offense or defense, those position coaches are much more eager to “invest” in those drills because it is a direct payoff to their position or unit.

I tended to not do a circuit, but focused on a particular team and broke up that team into units, i.e., the gunners versus jammers, edge blockers versus personal protector and edge blockers, the front five versus front five, etc. We tried to make everything competitive and fun. A lot of players still think of special teams as a secondary skill, so you want to try to keep these practice sessions upbeat and fun if at all possible.

Generally speaking, unless you’re doing extra point/field goal, then the OL can get extra individual work in during the special teams period. Sometimes though, when I wanted to give tacklers a tougher time, I’d use the OL as the blockers so the tacklers went against the best I have.

So, in a nutshell: Special Teams can win you games and possibly championships. Your staff needs to buy into that, and if they do with creative scheduling and drills, your players will as well. Think about how to drill the skills you need, not just the teams. Then think about the most efficient way to get that done, THEN add a competitive or fun element to it. You’ll have winning units at the end of the year!