A Lightbulb Moment

I love “Lightbulb Moments” – whether it is because one of my players suddenly “sees the light” or I do, they’re (pardon the pun) quite illuminating. I had one the other night. I found myself with some spare time – my significant other was in the midst of watching/catching up on her TV shows, so I started looking through my COOL Clinic DVD’s. I’ve talked about the COOL Clinic before, but I’ll say it again – if you are at all involved with the offensive line, you are cheating yourself and your players if you aren’t taking advantage of this knowledge.

Anyway, ever since I saw Dave Christensen a couple of weeks ago talk about how A&M ran the inside zone, I saw that how defenses played the Aggies really opened up the run game, and that their inside zone really tended to stretch a defense. Coach also talked about complementing it with the outside zone, but the technical aspects of the outside zone were out of the parameters of his talk so he didn’t really get into it. My experience with the outside zone since the early 2000’s is limited. I guess the last time I actually installed it was 2013, but then we got away from it in favor of the Fly Sweep, and that has remained the trend since then. I think a lot of that has to do with the feeling that I had that my implementation of the outside zone was stale – I felt like all the other run plays I install (inside zone, counter, fly, toss, trap) have evolved over time into pretty effective plays, but by and large, my thinking on the outside zone was stuck in the 1990’s.

So when I looked at my DVD’s the other night, I saw one that had two presentations – Mark Staten from Michigan State and Rick Trickett from Florida State, both talking on the outside zone. All righty – let’s see what they have to say! 

Coach Staten’s presentation was phenomenal – mostly because his scheme and technique is so closely related to what we’re doing on the inside zone that I think adapting it would be a no-brainer. Basically, the angle of your first two steps is a little different, and then you’d like different hand placement depending on if you had help or not, but other than that, from a schematic standpoint, it fits in extremely well. He’s very heavy on “pin n’ pull” concepts as are we.

Next up was Coach Trickett’s talk. Coach may have the deepest Southern accent I’ve ever heard…..only Bob Cope is (was, RIP) in the same league. His style of the outside zone at first glance was very different – almost all straight zone, very little of the pin ‘n pull of Michigan State.  But the simplicity of the play was what drew me to liking his stuff a lot. However, in deciding what to go with, ultimately I wanted to change the OL thinking less and merely alter the path of the RB slightly.

Speaking of the path of the RB, that brings me back to Coach Christensen’s talk a couple weeks ago. He’s got the RB lined up on the inside leg of that tackle, even with the QB. Even on the inside zone, he’s got the RB coming across flat, with the QB taking a slight step backwards to clear, and then the RB plants and cuts it upfield into the B gap (initially – can always change based on the read). The reason for that is if the back is slightly behind the QB, on the inside zone he tends to run more downhill. Well, most people would say that’s a good thing – after all, that was one of the big selling points on the Pistol formation, getting the RB downhill. Well, that is great, but remember that that downhill path affects the LB’s too. They see that RB trajectory and they’ll start flowing downhill in a hurry, causing congestion where you want to run.

On the other hand, having the RB come across flat, now the defense doesn’t know whether it is inside zone, or outside zone. If it is outside, and they don’t react appropriately, they’re going to be outflanked quickly. If they react to the path thinking it is outside, and it turns out to be inside, then the OL has them going sideways, and for a defender that is a great way to get your ass kicked! So now the defense is left guessing – which is exactly what we want. Regular readers of this blog have heard me say again and again, “Make the defense play with doubt.” It was true when Homer Smith first said it sometime in the early 80’s, and it is just as true now.

Suffice to say, my thinking on the outside zone has been rejuvenated and I’m looking forward to see the results of this particular Lightbulb Moment.

Early Highlights

We had our second tryout for 2016 this past weekend, and I gotta say, this may have been the most fun that I’ve had at a tryout ever. First of all, we had a great turnout – around 55 guys, which didn’t include some guys that came out on the first one. So I’m thinking we’ve got 65-70 players that have shown up to at least one of the tryouts. Next, they worked their butts off! There was no standing around, the coaches were flying around encouraging the players, and to their credit, the players responded extremely well.

After a team stretch (complete with music – as a rather old-school coach, I was indifferent to it, but it did provide a much more collegiate type atmosphere), we went into agility/conditioning stations where there was constant movement, then to a 300-yards shuttle run. After that, we broke into individual groups. The 6 OL who were there went though some of the basic every day types of things we’ll do during the season. At this point I’m just trying to get a baseline of where everyone is at. I haven’t coached any of the six more than for an all-star game back in 2012, and that was only one guy, so most of the time was just observing and correcting where necessary. All of the guys took it well, and rarely did we have to talk about things more than once. I loved their attitude and approach – this is definitely going to be a very good offensive line.

Finally, we moved into a group 7-on-7 period. I’d made up some play cards with just four basic concepts (4 verticals, hitches, shallow cross and smash) out of two formations, doubles and trips – strictly Passing Game 101 stuff. We had enough guys on offense to run four full units, so everyone on the field was moving. We just ran plays down the field, starting at our 10, one unit after another. I’d say that we easily got 50 plays in the 20-minute period.

It was just the up-tempo type of atmosphere that we want to have throughout the season. We’re looking at running 100 plays per practice, and I see now that it will be entirely possible.

***

Because it is March and because this is the men’s game, it is now time for league and team madness to start. Teams are popping up left and right. I have no idea what the fascination is with running a team. I guess if you’ve had bad ownership in the past (been there, done that) there is certainly a desire to move, but to actually do it yourself? No thanks…..big props to the Collins family that runs the Nighthawks. I say the “Collins family” because they truly are all involved in some form or fashion, from the eldest to the youngest, who can be seen hauling whatever they can in equipment off the field – sometimes it is bigger than they are! Tony and his family are really making this season a joy to be a part of so far.

***

Over on the women’s side, it is with some sadness that I see the Las Vegas Showgirlz have folded. Although they never beat us, I would call them rivals just because of the intensity of some of the games. Owner/HC Dion Lee always got them ready to play and he had some very visionary ideas on how to promote the game.

I also saw coverage of the World Women’s Games 3 (or is it the Women’s World Games?) down in New Orleans at the Saints training facility. That was quite an event, and seemed to draw a lot more attention than the first two did. In all honesty, I think this was the first one that gave back as much as the players paid in. Having the Saints (and presumably the NFL in some fashion) step up and get involved is huge. I hope that it continues to go onward and upward.

***

Not a whole lot else going on right now, so I’ll wrap it up. As always, if there is some scheme, play, technique or topic you’d like to see, just let me know! Thanks for reading.

Lessons Learned

As I mentioned last week, I was up at the Los Angeles (really Orange County) Glazier clinic on Saturday. As always, the best part for me was seeing guys that I used to coach with and against when I was in the high school ranks back in the 90’s. 

I was especially happy to see one of my former Fountain Valley players, Todd Gruca, still coaching. He took over for me (not right after I left, of course, but eventually) as the varsity OL coach for the Barons. Now he’s still coaching the freshman team and doing a great job with them. He was a kid that was just a real solid high school OL…..his size wasn’t going to get him to the next level, but his heart carried him further than he probably would have gone. I remember getting ready to play an extremely talented Anaheim Esparanza team that had a couple of D-I type DL on it. Todd’s guy was going to be 6-6, 275 Sean Jarne, who’d committed to Colorado. Todd was 5-10 and maybe 230 if he’d eaten a good lunch that day. I spent the weekend before in game prep trying to figure out who we were going to get those guys blocked with our guys. In the end, we decided to put them out there and let them do their thing. We lost, but it wasn’t because we didn’t have a running game or because Jarne and his guys got any sacks – they got zero on the night. Todd battled his butt off pretty much one-on-one and got the job done. I’ve always been very proud of him.

As far as what I got out of the clinic, there were about 6 or so pages of notes. Some of it was noting validation of what I was already doing, and some were tweaks to what I wanted to do. For example, I’ve got to put in a new pass protection this year because we’re doing a ton of empty set stuff. So a while ago I had an article from the OL coach at Nevada that detailed a five-man protection. Dave Christensen, last years’ OL coach at Texas A&M was also speaking on pass protection, and his out-of-the gate talk was on five-man protection. His concepts mirrored what the Nevada coach said about 95%. So now I feel a whole lot better about putting in that particular protection, you know? I guess it would’ve been one thing had this “rogue coach” from the Mountain West been the only guy doing it, but now to get validation of sorts from an SEC coach doing pretty much the same thing sealed the deal.

It was a great day!

***

I also wanted to touch on a subject that we harp on players about, but not often as coaches ourselves: loyalty. I was reminded of this subject recently in a local coaches’ forum. A rather high-profile program here recently made an out-of-state hire as their HC. A couple of assistants posted their initial reactions after meeting with the HC, and to me, it didn’t seem like they were all that enthused. (NOTE: I did speak with one of those coaches privately, and he assured me that I simply misunderstood him. It was a good conversation, but if I hadn’t taken the time to inquire, my original impression would have stood.)

When you hear of coaches getting hired, whether as assistants or bosses, you often hear of the importance of loyalty within the staff. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t disagreements within the staff, or that assistants have to be “yes men” behind closed doors, but it does mean that you need to present a unified, enthusiastic front to the public. If the new coach is replacing a very popular and successful coach (as in my example above), it becomes even more critical to the overall success of the program that no one is longing for the “good old days” under Coach X.

Loyalty is important in business as well. Business guru Harvey Mackay wrote about several football coaches here (column) titled, “Getting fired can be a good thing” where he details in particular, the loyalty of Gary Kubiak.

Now, I happened to learn this lesson many years ago, after my first year coaching, in 1991. It’s not a story I tell often, because in looking back, my behavior was poor and frankly, inexcusable. So you get it once…..

The head coach I worked for in 1991 wasn’t very good. We went 2-8 in a talent-rich area. I wasn’t a very good position coach either, so on the field I did my part in our failure as well. The HC was also noted as somewhat of a strength and conditioning guru, but in all honesty when I started running the weight room, I got his guys stronger in a hurry. Suffice to say, he just wasn’t a good coach.

After the season, rumors were rampant that he was going to get fired (and he did). The guy who hired me was the OC, and we were old buddies, which is the only reason I got the job. He was one of the front-runners to take over the job and had a faction of parents in his corner. There were other groups of parents who wanted to go in an entirely different direction. It was a mess.

Anyway, my big mistake was in talking to a reporter. I got called out of the blue by a guy from the local paper. I was excited that he would want my opinion, and I was naïve in how the whole press thing worked. It was my first time in that situation and I blew it. The reporter asked me for my opinion of the HC, and I gave it. Unfortunately for me, it was published, word for word. It was a tight-knit community, and my quotes quickly made the rounds – quick even by 1991 standards!

Of course, I got a call from the HC. He ripped me up one side and down the other, and there was really nothing I could say – the best I could come up with was “I was misquoted”, but that was weak. My friend the OC and his buddies congratulated me for saying what I did….after all, it was the truth. But the DC, an older guy, took me aside and told me why exactly I screwed up. He explained why loyalty was so important, and with his explanation, I felt like crap. I knew that he (the DC) was right. I apologized to him on the spot.

By that time, the HC was ripping me in public as well, in various forums in Orange County. So I never apologized to him directly. In the end, he was out of the game even as an assistant within two years. Again, he just wasn’t very good. I’ve managed to stick around awhile and that lesson never left me. Even typing it now brings back some of the raw emotion I felt during that time.

The bottom line is this: argue, fight, scratch & claw with each other behind staff doors. But in the end, whatever your position is on the team, you likely have someone you report to, who gives you your marching orders. You either follow those orders, or you resign. Don’t drag the whole program down with you if you don’t agree. The players you coach, and maybe your future in the game, depend on you showing a united front as a program to the public and just as importantly, your opponents. Loyalty is important, maybe the most important trait head coaches look for when hiring.

Lessons learned……

The Learning Season

This is the time of year when coaches get better – clinic season! I wasn’t able to get to as many as I normally do (missed the Las Vegas Glazier clinic this year), but I still have chances to learn. This Saturday I’ll be in Orange County at the Glazier clinic, listening to some OL topics, a Hudl topic, some quick game pass concepts and some zone read stuff. 

As always, I’ll need to update my book list as well, because I know I’ll end up picking out at least one title to add to my library.

Nike is also having their Coach of the Year clinic here in March. I’m not sure I’m making it to that, as quite honestly I prefer the Glazier format of more varied speakers and more focused topics. But if I get the chance (i.e., someone comes through on a staff pass), then I’ll certainly take advantage of it.

Finally, in May, I’ll be over in Glendale AZ at LeCharles Bentley’s OL Performance World for his first-ever coaches clinic. I think that’ll be a unique experience to pick his brain. He’s limited it to 50 coaches, so I’m very happy to be in that group.

***

This past weekend, I watched for the first time a couple of episodes of “Friday Night Tykes”……wow – what a train wreck those people are. I’m not sure what season it was from, but I noticed the games were from 2013. I only saw two coaches out of everyone they showed – two – teach any technique at all, or coach in a positive manner. Those were the head coach of the Predators (for those of you who may follow the series) and the president/assistant coach of the Junior Rockets. The rest of those coaches were pure trash.

One coach thinks the game is all about him. After an opening 6-0 loss, he talked about it being the “worst day of his life” – really? He must have had a pretty soft life. Another coach encouraged his kids to chant “F____ the Rockets” before their game. Again….really? They wore t-shirts talking about being the “money team” and that it was time “to get paid”. His star RB would score a TD (he did seem fast and pretty shifty for a 8-9 year old), go over to the other team’s logo on the field and do some stupid movement over it. Again, the coaches were doing the same thing on the sidelines.

Now, in all fairness, I’ve never coached at the youth level of football, other than at a couple of clinics and camps. The “trash” coaches also happened to win the games I saw, while the two coaches I praised above lost their games. So I dunno….maybe at that level, at 8-9 years old, all you have to do is make your kids meaner than the other team – or make them more scared of you than the other team.

I ran into that type of coach once here in San Diego, when my son was looking to play. I never pushed him towards football, although I always did want him to try it. Finally, when he was 12 he told me he wanted to play. Up until that time, he was solely a baseball player. So I signed him up for the local Junior All American team. We were in Vegas with the Surge during the sign-ups, so I didn’t get to meet the coach. When I got back into town, I thought I’d call him up and introduce myself.

I gave him a call and things started off nicely enough. Then the coach said, “Well, I do have some concerns.” I said, “Oh? What are those?” “He’s never played before.” “Right – well, I don’t expect him to be an all star or anything, just coach him up.” “Well, Mr. Ring….you don’t understand. My team is full of ballers. All they do is play football year around.” “No, Coach you don’t understand. This is youth football. If he turns out to be just “a guy” then he that’s what he is. But it is your job to get him ready to play. I’ll help however I can on my end. He’ll do whatever you tell him to, to the best of his ability.” “Well, Mr. Ring I’m pretty sure that he won’t want to continue playing after the first couple of practices.”

I was floored….I hung up and immediately wrote a letter to the president of the league describing the conversation. It turns out that the president had been wanting to get rid of the coach for awhile, but she was waiting until his kids aged out. Well, that, plus he won a ton of games.

I was fortunate in that we found another league, La Jolla Pop Warner, that was included in our residential area. The coach there, Doug Brown, is the exact and total opposite of the youth coaches in FNT and the other SD coach. As it turned out, Travis was “just a guy” – playing football just wasn’t his deal. But he had fun, learned a lot and the team only lost one game all year, in the county championship. Coach Brown is extremely knowledgeable, and has spoken at several Glazier clinics (and will be this weekend) on youth topics.

Coach Brown wasn’t a “soft” coach by any means either. I was at several practices where he lit into guys. He was very demanding. BUT – he coached them, even when he was yelling at them. He taught proper tackling and blocking techniques – it wasn’t just about knocking the hell out of the other guy.

In my opinion, nothing good comes from shows like Friday Night Tykes.  The coaches put on a show (or maybe not) and the kids are too young to know any better. The parents want their 15 minutes of fame as well. I doubt I’ll be watching again.

Tryouts and Differences

As I mentioned last week, we had tryouts for the Nighthawks this past Saturday. 

Registration started at 8:30, and we were due to hit the field at 9:30. I got there at 8:00, and there were probably 10 guys already there, getting loose. By 8:30, we had 30 guys, and by 9:00 we had about 45. Only about 5 guys showed up later than 9:00.

The only downside was that we only had 4 OL there….but given that I didn’t see 5 OL last year until practice 7, having 4 at Tryout #1 is pretty good!

So here’s a difference between the men’s and women’s game: If I’d seen this kind of turnout at a Surge tryout, when the coaches met afterwards, we’d be talking about making our reservations to Pittsburgh in August for the national championship. Seriously….you get that kind of turnout and potential talent on a roster, coupled with a halfway decent coaching staff, you’re going to be really, really good in the women’s game.

For us, we’re hoping to be in the Top Three in Southern California. The Inglewood Blackhawks, the California (Palm Desert) Coyotes, and the Inland Empire (San Bernardino) Raiders are the reigning kings of SoCal football. We’re hoping to be in the mix at the end of things, and believe we will be, but that’s still a long way away.

We’ve got the essentials to be successful: A committed, organized ownership group; a solid group of 10 coaches (the vast majority of whom have been or are current varsity coaches – no guys just coming on from Pop Warner here) and now a good group of guys to start with. Our challenges will be the same as with any talented team – finding the right team chemistry.

One unique thing about this OL group, is that I’ll be coaching two current high school OL coaches. Two (so far) of my guys are coaches themselves, so they’ll hopefully be able to grasp our schemes in a hurry and I’m looking forward to making them not only better players but hopefully better coaches. The discussions about technique and scheme should be interesting.

***

Looking through Neal Rozendaal’s book, The Women’s Football Encyclopedia (purchase link here) gave me a pretty extreme sense of pride in a few places. One was being able to look back and remember games from 2003, 2004, etc., seeing the scores and then having memories from those games – specific calls, players, plays – pop back into my head like they were yesterday. 

The other was looking at the “record section” that Neal put together: At the top of the list, for points scored per game (minimum 50 games) was the San Diego Surge at 51.5. Over the years, from 2011-15, no one scored more points per game than us. Now, to be sure I’d trade that distinction for a couple more National Championship wins, but lacking those, I’ll take the notoriety where I can get it! The great thing about that was that it was a true total staff effort - in 2011 Mike Vargas was the OC, in 2012 it was Mike Suggett, in 2013 it was me and in 2014-15 it was Carrie Suggett.

Really, you should pick up a copy. It is very comprehensive. I’ve already sent over some player rosters from the old SoCal Scorpions, so that they can get updated in the next edition. I would encourage (as would Neal himself I think) anyone that has that type of information to send it over to him.

***

I think that’s about it for this week – not a lot going on, and there’s no need for me to just blather on…..so I’ll see you next week!

High Expectations

First, a Super Bowl review…..Obviously I was wrong about the outcome of the game. Denver’s defense was way too much for the Panthers to handle. I’d heard that Carolina was going to run (or should run) Newton 15-20 times this game in order to keep Denver’s defense guessing. Well, whether their original plan was to do that or not, I have no idea, but it sure seemed like they needed to do more of it. I think Newton only had maybe 5 designed runs in the game. In the pregame show, they even acted out one of the Panthers’ trademark runs – counter read left with an option to the right. I saw them run it once during the game. They had success early with an option, but never really came back to it. A couple of times it looked like they had the option pretty open, but either Newton didn’t read it or it wasn’t a play that allowed him to read. I don’t know…..not sure what the plan was. I would’ve liked to have seen more of what got them there.

Same thing with screens and rollouts…..something, anything to take some pressure off of not only Newton, but the OL. The tackles were highlighted the most, but I saw breakdowns at LG and C as well. They hit a nice screen early to the TE, but never came back to it. It was almost like OC Mike Shula had them in his First 15 script, but then forgot to look at what worked.

Anyway, congratulations to the Broncos and Peyton Manning on a fine career. I hope he walks away now with his head held high. Also a shout out to former Aggies Gary Kubiak and Von Miller!

*****

I’ve been contemplating the Nighthawks’ upcoming season and also talked very briefly with a women’s coach about their team. The Nighthawks are in our second year, and the women’s team is in their third year. The Nighthawks’ expectations are through the roof and them women’s team is still on the upswing.

What is the main predictor of success in either the men’s or the women’s game? The answer is simple: practice attendance. The success that the SoCal Scorpions had from 2005-07 and the Surge had from 2011-2014 had a lot to do with commitment from the players to be at practice. In 2015, the Surge had a striking drop in practice attendance percentage. “Other things” just kept coming up for a lot of people. As a result, a team that had a lot more talent than the 2013 team ended up with the same 9-2 record. We always say that family and work come first as priorities, but football has to be *a* priority. It doesn’t have to be the top one, but it has to be on the short list. Players and coaches have to stop finding excuses for not being at practice, and instead find ways to get there. For years, we prided ourselves on a 90+% attendance rate. This year it was probably down to 75%. That’s good enough for a winning record, but when your expectations are to compete for a national championship, it’s not going to work. On the men’s side, the 2012 National City Bears were pretty good in that area, and we won a league championship in large part because of the commitment from players.

Practice Attendance goes hand-in-hand with “buy in” from the team to what the coaches are teaching. Not too long ago on the women’s side, it didn’t take much to get buy in from the players. They were so new that they didn’t know any better, and had no exposure to other staffs and ways of doing things. We were fortunate that with the Surge we had a very solid, experienced staff of teachers. Players that came from other teams generally were pleased with how they were now getting coached when they came over to us. The biggest thing with female players is that they want to know “why” they have to do things. As long as you can articulate that to them, they’re good with it. But if you take the “because I said so” approach, they will tune you out in a heartbeat.

On the guys’ side, buy in is a little trickier. Guys have usually been coached by a lot of different people. They may be very set in their ways and resistant to change. They may think they’re too good to be coached (in fairness, some of the female players are getting that way now as well). I firmly believe that it is the coaches’ job to create that buy in….even if the players are the ones that ultimately have to decide whether the team is more important than their ego.

As an Offensive Coordinator, I have to show each position how the offense will benefit them. In my personal philosophy, that means showing how a balanced offense opens up opportunities for everyone to be successful. There are trade-offs, to be sure: Wide receivers need to block in the run game for the RB’s. But when defenders become focused on stopping the run, it opens up opportunities for the WR in the passing game. RB’s may have to pick up blitzes in the pass game, but that also increases their receiving yardage opportunities via screens. Offensive linemen get the benefit of defenders not knowing what is coming next, so play slower. I sell the mantra of “making the defense play with doubt” a lot.

So when you talk about team expectations, take into consideration more than just what your raw talent will get you. Is it better to have “Athlete A” who is about a 90 on the talent scale, but only shows up when he feels like it for practice and consistently misses assignments during the games, or “Athlete B” who is a still solid 75 on the talent scale, but attends every practice, gets in sync with his teammates and rarely makes a mental mistake? I know who I’m taking.

Our “buy in” starts this Saturday at tryouts….I’ll talk about it next week.

Fun Stuff

Sort of a slow news week this week. I hear there’s a kind of big game this week though….who do you have? Although I think that if anyone has the ability to slow down the Panthers offense it is Denver, it’s not like Carolina’s defense is trash. They’re pretty dang good! So I think that Carolina will be able to outscore the Broncos.

People have been bagging on Cam Newton for being too cocky. I dunno – I just don’t see it. I see a big kid having fun playing a game, and playing it well. We should all have so much fun at our jobs. I wonder though…..how many kids will be in the stands to receive a game ball? Not sure I spend a couple grand to take a small child to a Super Bowl…..

***
I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I started individually training a local high school OL, my first time undertaking solo training like that. I found quickly that I had to enlist my son to come out a be a shield holder. Not sure he’s too happy about that. He’s a strong kid, and good-sized, but at just under 200 pounds he’s giving up about 90 pounds to the kid I’m training.

Anyway, the kid and I are having a blast. He was OK as a sophomore last season, showed good mobility with good size and a bit of a mean streak which is something you often have to coach a kid into. You know, kids that are bigger than their friends are always told before they go out to play, “Now play nice and don’t hurt anyone.” So a lot of times I’ve found that kids like that have to be encouraged to be a bit of a nasty SOB on the field. This kid seems to have that, albeit often times last year it was against physically overmatched opponents. His high school is going into a tougher league next year, so we’ve been gearing up for that.

Watching him on film last year, he was typical of a young offensive lineman – it was only his second year of football – in that his footwork wasn’t consistent and he didn’t have a great punch. He’d go up and shove people, or bump them, and because he was so much bigger, a lot of times they’d just fall down. But he got stalemated at the LOS often, because he’d “reach” instead of “punch”. So we’ve been working a ton on his punch, and this past week I think the light finally started going on. That is as rewarding a feeling for a coach as there is.

We’ll just continue to refine his techniques and consistency. I keep telling him that being a successful OL just means doing the “same boring (stuff) hundreds, if not thousands of times.”

***

I was also recently contacted by a high school coach in Las Vegas, who just got hired and needs to do some rebuilding after a 2-8 or 3-7 season. Road trips to Vegas are always fun, so I’m looking forward to setting that up – getting what he wants to run, what he wants to emphasize, etc. so I can come up with a mini-camp plan for his guys.

Then, I was just called on Monday by an old friend who I coached with at Fountain Valley in the 90’s. He just got the Offensive Coordinator job at one of the top programs in Orange County and wants to meet up so he can pick my brain (I told him it would only take as long to drink a glass of water, but for some reason he still wants to meet). In this case, knowing that the program is already at a very high level (the previous Head Coach retired after 37 seasons – they’ll probably either name a building on campus for him or erect a statue) and knowing how tough the competition is and how well they’re coached gets my adrenaline going a bit! I definitely want to do everything I can for him to make sure he gets going on the right foot. Heck, his OL coach may be way better than me – neither of us have any idea yet – but if nothing else I can help him get conversant on a nuts and bolts level with current trends in OL play.

***
Finally, my men’s team, the Nighthawks, had our orientation last Saturday. We had 41 guys show up, with another 10-15 contacting coaches to offer their apologies for not making it. For an initial meet ‘n greet, that’s pretty good, considering the same type of meeting last year at my former team netted 10 players. The competition for spots on this team will be intense, and will go a long way to getting San Diego semi-pro ball back where it was back in the mid-to-late 2000’s when the San Diego Thunder was winning everything in sight.

OK, all – enjoy the last game of the football season!