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!

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

By Any Means Possible

This past week, my men’s team, the Bears, took on another 8-1 team in the Inland Empire Meerkats (yeah, I get that a meerkat is part of the mongoose family, but it’s gotta be like the red-headed stepchild. Not very intimidating of a name). Anyway, they were 8-1 for a reason – they had a couple of very electric playmakers on offense. One we knew about, and pretty well shut down, and one we didn’t, but found out about in a hurry – he ran back the opening kickoff for a TD and then scored on a quick pass of about 80 yards.

Anyway, we won 30-12 (extra points seem to be an extreme luxury in this league, as none were scored). The way we did it is what is noteworthy. I can’t remember running this much by choice in a long, long time. I’m a big proponent of making the defense “play with doubt” and really prefer to be balanced in my play calls. But although we completed a few key passes, our efficiency wasn’t where it needed to be. So we ran the ball…..and ran…and ran. 

We might have thrown 2 passes in the 2^nd half. But we controlled the clock, and after only a 12-6 halftime lead, we opened up the game. A defensive scoop ‘n score gave us breathing room at 18-6, and then we took it from there.

As usual, there was something I wish I hadn’t done, and that was at the end of the first half. We were pretty much backed up around our 15, but I thought we could go down and score. We had one time out, and so did they. Well, two incomplete passes left us looking at 3^rd and 10 with about 50 seconds left. My HC was looking at me like he didn’t like me very much at that moment. So we ran the ball on 3^rd, got about 5 yards and I was thinking, “What an idiot….they’re going to call time out, and we’re going to have to punt from not only backed up, but to #15.” Except they didn’t call time out….and we watched the clock wind down, and we got out of there. I post stuff like this to help others avoid the same mistakes I make….and they’re subtle (usually), but still – if I want to be a great play caller, those are areas in which I need to improve.

Now….for the “meat” of this week’s post, I want to go back to one of my early posts, which fits in with this week’s theme of “doing what needed to be done” to win. This was titled “My Favorite Offense” from December 2013:

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Every once in awhile I’m asked what my favorite offense is. My license plates read “WC OFNSE”, so that could be a clue but in reality, the answer is simple: the one that works for that team, that season.

I’ve worked for 11 different offensive coordinators, and have been one myself five (note: now 6) different seasons. In that time, as a coordinator I’ve employed the following offenses: Wishbone, Power I, West Coast, Shotgun Spread and Fly.

I’ve got to say that right now, if the personnel is right, I really like the possibilities with the shotgun spread. You can do almost any variant you want out of it – you can have a varied passing game, you can run option, you can run any type of perimeter run game and you can have a power-based run game.

The key is recognizing and adjusting to what your players can do. Let me invoke one of Homer Smith’s quotes, which has stuck with me for years: “It’s not what you know, it’s what your players know.”

My first venture into the world of coordinating was with a men’s semi-pro team. I’d just finished a five-year stint at Fountain Valley High, under the watchful eyes of Hank Cochrane, who continues to be one of my heroes, although he would slap me silly for saying that. I figured that these players were grown-ass men and could handle a “high school” offense. Boy was I wrong…. At FVHS, we used four different pass protection concepts, with two variants in two of them, for a total of six protections. I simplified that down to one for these guys, and they still couldn’t comprehend it (a half slide protection). In Week One, we gave up eight sacks. I’d gone entire seasons at FV without giving up eight sacks! In Week Two, we beat up on a horribly overmatched team. Then we had a bye week, and our QB disappeared – just left. No one knew where he was. Anyway, the combination of an offensive line that apparently had very little experience in pass pro and having to break in a new QB pretty much eliminated a standard drop-back passing game.

So – what to do in a bye week? I had a speedy receiver that had played QB in Jenks, Oklahoma. He’d had experience in running the Wishbone. So I talked with him, found out what he was comfortable with, then set about figuring out ways to get the OL on the same page. Long story short, out of an eight team league, we ended up being the #2 scoring offense.

The following year, same team, completely different personnel.  That was the Power I team. I had a tailback that played at Alabama, and a huge offensive line. My QB had a little mobility and a strong arm for play action passes. At the end of the year, we were again the #2 scoring team, and beat the #1 team 35-14.

Each year of my coaching career, my outlook and preferences have changed. I’d evolved into a shotgun spread guy ever since about 2010. Last year, I went into the (2013) season thinking that was what we were going to run. However, when a combination of inexperienced receivers and quarterbacks raised its head, we were forced to adjust once again. This time, looking at our OL (extremely mobile, but a bit undersized) and our running backs (nice blend of speed and power) and what the receivers could do (they could block their asses off!) we settled on running the Fly offense, out of shotgun. I visited with Mark McElroy from Saddleback College (and who coincidentally followed me at my first coaching gig, at San Clemente High) and got his concepts down for the run game. We kept as much of our current terminology as possible, including the entire passing game, to keep the transition down. So then, all it became was a different play call mix, not a whole new offense.

The results were mixed – we averaged right around 40 points a game on offense, but we went 9-2, which was our worst finish in a couple of years. My feeling is that we were too dependent on the outside run game, and when we weren’t physically able to block defenders at the point of attack, we suffered. So if it was scheme or ability, either way we didn’t get the results we wanted.

This season (2014), we have an experienced QB coming back. My vision would be to keep what we ran last year, but instead of running the Fly motion 80% of the time, run it about 25% of the time, and then re-incorporate the rest of the shotgun spread run and pass game we had before. But again, as a coaching staff we have to look at what we can and can’t do, and be willing to adjust from there.

In closing, as a coordinator you can’t be so tied to your preferred plays or system that you lose sight of the fact that it is still about the team’s success. Remember, it’s not what you know, but what your players know.

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See you next week!

The Century Mark

This will be my 100^th post…..not sure what I expected when I started, but this has been fun, as well as being a mental challenge. Sometimes there just doesn’t seem to be much to write about and sometimes it seems to be a bit of a grind. I definitely feel for those who write professionally and on deadline! Even though I do this for fun, I still feel a responsibility to do one each week, and get it out on time. So far, I haven’t experienced a group of angry villagers with pitchforks (as Union-Tribune columnist Nick Canepa would say) knocking down the door in protest. I actually don’t know if that’s a good thing or not.

Now that I seem to have picked up a few more readers (based on the little lines on the viewing chart), I may go back and re-post some of the early posts, where I was really heavy into X’s and O’s. That’s still my favorite subject, so if anyone wants more of that, just let me know!

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The Saga of the Bears continued last week, when we faced a very formidable Riverside Redskins team. I knew their reputation of winning on defense, with a basic, grind-it-out offense, so I was thinking it would be one of those 14-7 games. Especially when all I had at practice last Thursday was 2 OL, 1 QB, 2 RB, 1 TE and 1 WR (who wasn’t even going to be at the game). Anyway, the Redskins came in tied with us at 6-1. They left 6-2, as we rolled to a 36-0 win. Although all of the points were put up by the offense, our defense put us in a lot of great spots as they forced 5 turnovers.

We actually used the 2^nd half as a practice, when I installed some pistol-concept plays. I’d resisted doing it a little, as I didn’t want to really change the scheme up front, so instead I decided to keep the blocking the same as on our backside read stuff, and just use the B (fullback) as either a lead block on our inside zone, or as a fill blocker when we ran counter. Also tried to get him out on a playaction. It’s a work in progress, but when you’re installing stuff during a game, you sort of take what you can get…..and yes, that’s something I’ve never done before, installing whole new concepts in the middle of a game. Only in semi-pro!

This week, I know my QB isn’t going to be at practice, so it’ll give us a chance to work on my “Plan B” stuff with my #2 and #3 guys (who are starting WR).

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For a long time, I’ve used the mantra of “football is football” no matter what the level, no matter if it is men’s or women’s. I have found one instance where that isn’t true, and it has to do with the raw speed guys have. With the women, we’ve developed a “blitz beater” package that is automatically tagged on the backside of our pass routes. It is very simple – the QB receives the (shotgun) snap, and looks for a blitz on the first two steps of her drop. If she gets it, she hits one of the blitz beater routes. If she doesn’t, then she’s hitting her third step while her eyes shift to the playside route combination and she hits that. With a little practice and reps, it becomes a very smooth process.

It doesn’t work with the guys…..by the time the QB makes his read on the backside, determines there’s no blitz (or what it is disguised as), and comes back to the playside, the playside route windows have come and gone. And my QB is a smart guy, who played four years collegiately. It seems the reason that our Surge QB can process that read and still have time to come back to the playside while the routes develop is a case of the relative speed – their eyes/brains function at the same rate, but the foot speed of the men gets them into the routes so much faster than the women.

So I’ve adjusted. I slide our protection away from the call, and generally keep in a RB to block/release on the playside. When I do free release the RB, at least now the QB’s backside is covered and he can see pressure coming at him, AND has the RB as a quick checkdown. I’d always wondered why a simple solution like we use on the Surge (and it really is brilliant – I didn’t come up with it, our HC Mike Suggett did back in 2010) wasn’t being used collegiately or in the NFL. Now I know!

Doing it that way, with the RB checking, it also sets up our screens and draws a bit better. 

All in all, I think this is a better solution, and most importantly, it makes my QB more comfortable. In the end, when it comes down to your comfort versus your QB's comfort, I think you really ought to look at "is this a battle I want to fight?" Sometimes, yes, it is. Other times, not so much. This ended up being one of those times. Our points have skyrocketed since I made the adjustment a couple of weeks ago, during our bye. So has our completion percentage.

Keep your eye on the Big Picture and divest your ego.

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.

Half Way Point

First of all, thanks to everyone who asked about last week’s missing post. Truth is, I wrote three of them and didn’t like any of ‘em. Since I’m not forced by anyone other than myself to post by a deadline, I just let it roll rather than post something lousy.

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The Surge had a big game this weekend, against probably our toughest regular season opponent, the Central Cal War Angels. We’d never faced them until 2013, when they rather rudely bounced us out of the playoffs (they weren’t really rude about it, they just beat our butts). We got a measure of revenge last year, but they were tough, physical games. This year, they’d outscored their opponents 190-6 in going 3-0. OK, so they hadn’t played anyone, but still…..On film they looked like they added some athletes on defense in particular, and they were more diverse on offense than in the past.

It was no real surprise to me that we only led 21-19 at half. Kudos to their DC, Jeff King for showing us something we absolutely hadn’t prepared for on defense and making our OL meetings between series actually mean something. They’ve got a couple of very skilled DL as well….#50 Aspen Marshall and #55 Jeanette Jimenez are both excellent players, and give us fits each time we play. Moving #45 LaStar Brown over to LB full time also didn’t so us any favors.

Having said all that, we were able to go on a 35-7 run in the second half to put things away. Unfortunately, the War Angels suffered a couple of injuries on offense that definitely altered their plans – I hope both players are doing well. But this win was the first of the season that was truly satisfying. Games like this, especially in the first half, are the types of games we signed up to play.

I wish I could say the same about our next couple of games, but I’m afraid they won’t be that way. I’m actually wondering if one or either of them will even happen. And this isn’t a case of wanting to simply dismiss an opponent, but rather a case of just stating how different the levels of competition are in the women’s game. It’s just a fact.

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It appears that the Midwest area of the American Conference is pretty much settled. The Dallas Elite, after beating up on Kansas City a couple of weeks ago, followed by KC beating St. Louis last week, looks to be the clear favorite there. It certainly simplifies our scouting a bit.

Seattle is still definitely the one to keep an eye on in the Northwest. They’re being bullies up there!

In the East, as most of you know, DC beat Boston two weeks ago, in Boston. I’ll be looking forward to the rematch in DC to see if there is a New World Order now or if it was just a hiccup for Boston.

However, in the East, I firmly believe it will be Chicago’s year. Although I do think they lost a bit at QB with retirement, I also believe that Coach Konecki is building his offense around his strengths. I actually haven’t watched any of their film yet, but I’d be shocked if he wasn’t using Cassey Brick the same way he used JJ Javelet in 2013. Maybe I can watch some of their stuff over the next couple of weeks.

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I’ve been watching a lot of stuff from Ohio State. I’m a big fan of Urban Meyer’s…been stealing his stuff ever since he was at Bowling Green! I just found out that on my men’s team I’ll have a different backup QB than who I thought I was going to have. I’m excited about that, as there is a lot of stuff I wanted to do in the run game that my starter doesn’t really care for. The new backup will also be a starting WR, so there are some definite wildcat possibilities now, along with a package from our normal offense that I can install. It’s nice to have flexibility in your system so that you can simply switch your playcall mix instead of changing your entire offense. Plus, now I won’t have someone sitting the bench complaining about playing time. One less distraction…..

One other new thing for me with the Bears is going into a season knowing only one of my OL. All the other guys, I’d never even heard their names before! They’ve all played collegiately, so at least I know they’ve been somewhat coached up, and most likely have at least a passing familiarity with the things I want to run, but it is just odd to go into practice not really knowing what they do best.

OK, that’s it for now…..

Bye Week Musings

Playing and competing at a high level can be tricky on the adult level. In the professional ranks or collegiately, lines are clear: you are there to win. Everyone is on the same page. Winning, through every legal means possible, is the goal. If you’re not on board with that, there’s the door. I don’t think there is any question about that in any NFL or NCAA player’s mind.

At the adult level (semi-pro men’s, pro women’s), in my coaches’ mind, there is no difference. We (the San Diego Surge) play for a national championship – that is our goal. On the men’s level, my So Cal Bears aim to go as far as we can. It isn’t quite as cut and dried as at the women’s level, as politics often get in the way, but the ultimate goal for the Bears is to go 15 or 16 and 0.

In order to consistently play at that high of a level, it takes true competitors and team players to make it. There is no other way, no other way to be. True competitors understand that on a 40 person team, there are only 22 starting slots (11 more if you want to add in ST). They understand that this isn’t youth or recreational ball. They understand that competition in the most basic form, necessarily means that not everyone “wins” a starting spot, or as much playing time as they may like. “Winning” for some players means that they have a role to play on the team, and when their time is called they need to perform to the very best of their ability. Their contributions are no less than those of starters. Football isn’t basketball, where one player can often dominate a game all by themselves. Each and every player on a football team is important to the overall success of that team.

There are teams out there (both male and female) that do treat this as a version of rec ball, whether they want to admit it or not. Unfortunately for those teams, sometimes teams that take things a bit more seriously appear on the schedule. We all wish it wasn’t that way. No one enjoys those types of games.

There are other teams who are out there truly trying to better themselves – two women’s teams come immediately to mind: the Pacific Warriors and the Central Cal War Angels. The Warriors, as I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, are considerably better than they’ve been in the past. Huge upgrades on overall athleticism. The War Angels slowly built themselves up year after year. In 2013, they beat us pretty well in the playoffs. We managed to return the favor last year, and now we’re looking at the beginnings of a true rivalry. From what I’ve seen on film so far, they’ve added some definite athletes on defense. The two games against them should be great ones.

And that, my friends, is my point….competition, whether it is internal, striving for a starting role, or external against another team, helps mold and define character. It is a good thing.

***

Coaches, if your center cannot shotgun snap with any reasonable consistency, why do you make her do it? As I said last week, if you’re developing an offense based around certain assumptions, and those assumptions prove to be invalid, you need to change! I just watched a future opponent have 4 out of 10 snaps go completely over the QB’s head, and the ones that didn’t had longer hang times then their punts. There can be no development when a key piece of a play (the snap) starts badly. Please put your QB under center, and just block down like you would for a FG. Have everything timed off a three step plant and throw. Your QB is athletic, so give her a chance! You can coach up the rest of your OL in the offseason, but for now, give yourselves a chance. Eliminating the self-inflicted negative plays would be huge.

***

Some of you may know that almost all big-time colleges across the country host summer camps for high school football players. These have evolved into highly competitive affairs, with many of the top players from around the country attending the bigger ones (Alabama, Michigan, Ohio State, USC, etc.). The latest twist to this comes from Jim Harbaugh, Michigan’s new coach. He has invited a maximum of two coaches from every college in the country to attend and coach at the Michigan camp. Now, some people have dismissed this as trolling, and it may well be only that. But I don’t think so….and the reason I bring it up here is that that is exactly what we want to do with our RS Football Camp in November. Yes, we (Surge Head Coach Mike Suggett and I) host it, but at our first one last year we had coaches (besides ours) from Utah, Texas and an outside kicking coach attend and teach.

We want diversity of thought, we want the players to compete against each other, even if it is someone doing a drill better than someone else. We want the coaches to engage in earnest discussions about best practices. That type of thing is what will make everyone better. So yeah, if you think you’re a solid coach, we’d love you to come out to San Diego this November. Drop me a line. We’re trying to do what Jim Harbaugh is doing – maybe we’re more sincere about it though!

***

Speaking of the Harbaugh family, Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh wrote an article last week titled, “Why Football Matters”. The link is here. You should read it. Yes, you.

***

Shifting over to the men’s game……The past two Thursday nights I had the chance to start installing my “new, rebuilt from the ground up” offense with the Bears in the form of two chalk talks. I wanted to get a little bit of a head start on practices which begin May 21. We’ll only get 9 practices before our first game. The normal schedule that I’ve gotten used to is 16 practices, but hey, gotta play the hand you’re dealt.

Anyway, coming out of those talks I’m highly encouraged. When I first presented it to two of my players, the comments were “never gonna work because the guys won’t put in the effort to learn it” and “it is a NASA offense”. So I spent a lot of time thinking about how to communicate the concepts and terminology to the group as a whole, and I think it paid off: I saw an awful lot of guys nodding their heads in agreement as they “got it”. I even heard a couple of comments along the lines of “that’s simple”.

I read once that the art of coaching can be defined as “making that which is difficult appear to be easy”. I don’t know if I’m quite there or not, because it is a completely different thing to have guys nodding in agreement in a classroom and then having them perform correctly on the field. So we’ll see.

***

Home game this week for the Surge against Arizona. In all honesty, it looks like the Assassins are struggling a bit again, but our focus has to be on us and our execution. Both Nick Saban and John Wooden refer to their own versions of the “process” and in games like this, that’s where we have to be as well. How perfectly can we execute? I’ll let you know next week.

Evolution of Thought

No, don’t worry….this post isn’t nearly as deep as the title suggests, I just couldn’t think of a better one!

Following the topics of my last couple of posts, regarding Old Dogs, Best Practices and April Fools, I’ve come across a really new concept (for me anyway) and then also came to a realization. First, the new concept…..

If you don’t subscribe as an Insider to X’s and O’s Lab (www.xandolabs.com) then you are definitely missing out! $38 a year for what they give you – new stuff every week – is a steal. I’ve got a binder filled with stuff I’ve printed out from them. There’s a recent post regarding an “adjustable 5 man protection”. Given that we (both the Surge and the Bears) are spread teams and really prefer to get 5 receivers out in the pattern, this was of particular interest to me. To be honest, I think this protection would take a bit too much retraining to make it in time for the Surge season, but I really want to look at it for the Bears this fall, and see if I can poke any holes in it. However, it looks solid and relatively easy. Not as easy as the current half-slide we use, for sure, but doable.

The evolution of thought for me in this case, is the possibility that the center may be one-on-one with a NG. I haven’t run that since 1993, when I didn’t know any better. We gave up a lot of sacks in ’93 too, so the fact that I’m even considering this is a quantum leap for me. Of course, there IS help for the center but it just isn’t automatic. This protection, unlike others (such as the half-slide) does require your center to be better than average. Anyway, take a look at it on the website. Subscribe if you haven’t already – you can thank me later.

Now the realization…..with some of the rather big changes in technique I’ve introduced to the Surge OL this season, I realize that I may be guilty of what I cautioned against last week – muddling things up. I think I’m still searching for the best “packaging” of these ideas and improvements, and it has seen me call essentially the same things a bunch of different names which has caused some confusion. My OL, bless their hearts, haven’t said anything, but I can see it in some of my veterans’ faces and I notice a little bit of a lack of confidence where before there was supreme confidence. So that’s gotta get fixed right away! By the time I’ve posted this, it will already have been addressed.

So what are my core tenants? Here they are, to be used in both the run and pass game:

Play with a base & knee bend.
Move your feet before your hands.
Always strike low to high & bring your hips.
Strike with heavy hands & tight elbows.
Try to use your hands independently.
Always keep your feet moving.

That’s it….when you boil everything else down, dress it up with any phrases you want to use, or any little tidbits you pass along, the above is what we need to do every play, and chances are excellent that if we do, then things will work out alright.

Also, as I mentioned last week, this week is game week! Best time of the year, sorta like unwrapping a Christmas present that you really have no idea what it is. We’re playing a team that we’ve been fortunate enough to dominate over the years, but who is a very physical team. A lot of the players know each other; some of their players have played for us, and some of our players have played for them. They are sure that this is “their year” and we are equally sure that it will be a case of status quo. We’ll all just have to wait and see.

Screen Games

One thing I really, really like about coaching within collegiate rules (besides the OT rules and despite being down without contact) are the possibilities in the screen game. Here are some things to consider when putt in your screens:1.       If you’re in the WFA, go find some film on the Chicago Force, especially the 2013 WFA Championship game. It should still be up on the watchgamefilm.com site. The Force may be the best screen team I’ve ever seen. The sheer variety that they run is dazzling, and they execute pretty well also.

2.       Consider your personnel, and the types of DL that you face. Not all teams can run screens, not all teams are good to run screens against.

a.       Ideally, you would have an offensive line that can get out in space and block. If your OL is more of the “two shoves and stop” variety, then running screens will be quite an undertaking.

b.      If you are facing a DL that isn’t very active – i.e., they pretty much stay on the LOS, then traditional middle screens won’t be much help to you. One of those inactive DL may just luck into the play of their life and get a pick!

3.       Types of screens – please note, this is a very high overview of the screen game…..

a.       Middle Screens – might be the easiest to start with, just know that as I said above, the type of OL you have and the type of DL you are facing may have a bearing on how well it works for you. All you need to do is get a receiver over the middle, behind the LOS somehow….could be a TE from the LOS peeling back; could be a RB settling down as in pass pro, then turning around or it could be a WR coming in motion and being the receiver. There are all sorts of ways to make that happen.                     i.      The OL basically just “loses the first hit”, while possibly shoving or clubbing the DL upfield, then they head downfield for second level defenders. If a DL refuses to disengage with them, then I tell my OL to stay on them.                     ii.      As long as your OL can get a piece of the second level defenders, this play has a chance to be pretty good.

b.      Wide Receiver Screens – these work pretty well, and don’t depend necessarily on your OL being mobile or the DL being aggressive.                     i.      These can be either Bubble Screens, or Jailbreak Screens –                                1.       On the Bubble, a receiver (can be inside WR, motion WR or RB) arcs to the outside. The RB part of that can be especially deadly against teams who don’t adjust well to motion.                                2.       On the Jailbreak, the outer WR is coming in towards the ball. While it still works better if your OL can get up on the second level (NOTE: pretty much everything works better if your OL can move), the receiver can cut it up a bit more vertically if there is too much traffic further inside.                     ii.      However, at least one of your WR’s had better be a beast when it comes to blocking, and it would be nice if the playside tackle can move a bit. Failing that, she needs to make sure the DE doesn’t get too far upfield and disrupt your throwing lane.

c.       “Traditional” left or right RB screens – these I think are the hardest to implement, just because I think they do take more time, although if you happen to play under NFL rules (and maybe high school – I’ve lost track of what they do), they may be your best option.                     i.      The way I taught this to the OL was as follows:                                 1.       Playside tackle, set deep and drive the defender inside to clear the lane. Alternative was to club and drive upfield. Anything except let the DE sit there.                                  2.       Playside guard/center: Whoever of the two is uncovered goes first and either takes “first force” or if they see a man-to-man LB following the RB, that LB.                                  3.       Playside guard/center: Whoever is covered goes second and takes the alley defender (SS/OLB if #1 takes man LB or ILB if #1 takes first force). Basically, #2 reads #1’s block and does the opposite.                                  4.       Backside guard: Is always #3 and goes last. Their job is to circle around and pick off the “first smart DL”. They would go pretty much flat down the line to about the playside B gap, and look back for the first DL to read and react to the screen. It should give an opportunity for a great block!                                  5.       My overall rule for #’s 1, 2 and 3 is “win the first (hit), lose the second”. Using NFL rules, this will keep your OL within the normal boundaries allowed by the referees and not too far downfield. Coupled with a more lateral release due to the direction of the play, you should be fine.

4.       When you install screens, make sure that as an OC you let your position coaches know in advance that it is going to happen that day. They should then drill the essential skills in their Indy period. Sure, there will be some minor timing issues when you come together as a group or team, but they will be minimal compared to if the individual positions have never even performed the blocks/schemes.

Screens are fun to run. They can be demoralizing to a defense, and really take their aggression out of the game. Funny story from last year….we were on the road against a team that had us (me and a coach from the other team) sharing a rather large pressbox. There was probably 15 or so feet in between us, so while we couldn’t hear each other in normal conversation, we certainly could if one or the other got excited. We were facing a 4^th and 10 from their 27, and I called for a middle screen (in our terminology, it wouldn’t have been obvious to the other coach even if he heard it). Five seconds later, I could hear him say, “Bring pressure – bring everyone!” I just silently thought to myself, “YES!” The result? It went from a 4th and 10 situation to a touchdown.

OK….I think I’m gonna take Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve off. Over those two weeks, I would love to get some requests about issues/problems/questions you may have that you’d like to see addressed. You can either comment in the blog comment section, or hit me up directly via my Facebook page or at kmring@gmail.com. Have a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year, and I’ll talk to you again on January 7^th!

Tempo - A Total Commitment

Much of the talk these days around different teams by the network analysts centers around “tempo”, or in some cases (Arkansas), the lack of it. In college ball teams like Oregon, Texas A&M, Baylor and Auburn all go at a pretty frenetic speed, looking to snap the ball within 10 seconds or so after it is marked ready for play. In the NFL, the Eagles are the example, with the Patriots, Broncos and Chargers all close behind. The benefits to this style of play are apparent: more plays per game equal more chances to score points. Because pass rushing is perhaps the most physically taxing thing a defender does during a game, keeping tired defensive linemen out on the field because your pace doesn’t allow for substitution is a definite advantage. Your practices become much more efficient by necessity – you run more plays during practice and you don’t have to set aside special 2:00 drills. But it is the practice element that will be the focus of this article.

First of all, I’d like to recommend three resources for anyone wanting to implement an uptempo scheme: a book by Mark McElroy of Saddleback College (Amazon link here), a book by Auburn coach Gus Malzahn (Amazon link here) and a book by Chicago Force coach John Konecki (Amazon link here). Looking at all three of their approaches and melding it into your own is probably the best way to go. For me personally, Coach McElroy had the most influence.

So, if you are thinking about implementing a no-huddle or up-tempo offense this year, here are some things you might want to think about:

Terminology – I wrote about play terminology here and that is something that definitely needs to be considered. If your current terminology isn’t no-huddle compatible, that is the first thing you may want to change. Changing both terminology and tempo in one season may be tough, depending on how often you practice.

Signaling – You have to have some way of getting the plays in to your team. If your terminology is no-huddle compatible already, then you could just yell out the play to your QB who can then relay it to the rest of the team. But if that isn’t the case, and you don’t already have a signaling system in place, it is time to devise one. Whether it is hand signals, wrist coaches, play boards or what have you, there has to be a system in place to communicate what the play is.

Practice Mechanics – Moving to an up-tempo offense involves every coach on the staff. There should probably be two types of team periods, teaching and tempo. During the teaching period, which is meant for the practicing of new plays or concepts, or those plays in which you’ve identified that need to be fixed. During this phase of team, the pace isn’t as important as the teaching, but there should still be a sense of urgency among the staff, otherwise what was planned as a 10-play period taking (maybe) 15 minutes ends up being a 7-play period lasting 20.

During a tempo session is where the work is! You want to go as quickly as possible through your script, and you need the defense to keep up. So before practice even starts, there are things that need to happen:

Your script has to be well-thought out, to cover the plays you need work on for that practice. The script needs to include the scout team’s front and coverage so that you as the OC can ensure you’re getting the looks you need from the defense.

You need to include practice cards for the scout team defense. These cards should be numbered and the numbers included on your script. Each card should also have the offensive formation drawn on it, so that the scout team can see where they are supposed to be quickly. A copy of the script is given to the defensive coaches. Whoever is in charge of the scout team (and there should be a coach designated in that role) holds up the card for the front seven, and the DB coach calls out the coverage for the secondary, along with alerting a corner or safety of any blitz on that play. The secondary doesn’t need to huddle – just go get lined up. The defensive coaches definitely need to hurry the scout teams along – the offense cannot wait for them!

During the period, an offensive coach needs to be designated as the “Umpire”, to whom the player with the ball runs to and hands them the ball at the end of the play. They do NOT throw it or toss it to the official! If they miss, it wastes valuable time retrieving the ball and setting it ready for play. So they hand it to the official. Every time. Get in the habit.

If there is any coaching going on during this period, it had better be “on the run” or after the player in question is out, or after the period. Coaches can add notes to the script for this (and the OC can include a notes column in the script). What can NOT happen is the rest of the offense is lined up ready to go, and there is one player who a coach is talking to who is supposed to be in. This tempo period isn’t the time for that. Even worse would be a defensive player being talked to, but that should go without saying.

Finally, after the period is over, you may want to schedule a five minute Indy period so that the coaches can go over the mistakes they noted during the tempo period. This is a better option than meeting after the final talk at the end of practice because the players will still be in practice mode and have their pads on. It’s only five minutes, and that should be strictly enforced. 

Basically, when you are coaching in a no-huddle environment, everyone needs to learn to operate at that pace, with a definite sense of urgency in everything they do.

Again, I really recommend getting at least one of the resources I talked about before. The depth involved with moving to a no-huddle system is not done justice by this brief article.

*****

Once again, here are the basic details for our camp in November. We’re getting a ton of interest and lots of excitement. The cost is only $20 – 1/10^th of what USA Football is charging for their weekend in January, and I promise that there will be more teaching and skill development going on in ours (no game to get ready for in two days)! So here’s the basic info link, and then here is the link to the Facebook event.

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!

*****

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!

Football is Football

First of all, I just realized that it was exactly a year ago today that I wrote my first post. Thanks to any of you who happened to read each of them. I really do appreciate it!

***** 

Watching the NFL games this weekend reinforced some truisms we see at all levels of play:

1.    

      1.Quarterback/Center – the snap is the most important part of the play. Doing it perfectly only      allows you to continue. Getting it wrong can cost you the game. Ask Philip Rivers and the Chargers.

On that note, remember that when your center or QB get injured, they should go down. Let the trainer come out, even if it is a hand injury (one exception: less than about 30 seconds left in half with no time outs, where the 10 second run-off would hurt you even more). Have the trainer go out while the backup QB or center get some snaps in on the sideline. The absolute only thing that can make this situation worse is a botched snap on the next play.

2.       Keep it simple, relative to your level of play. Watching Eli Manning try and communicate to his receivers with small hand signals was painful. There seemed to be several instances of miscommunication. Hand signals are one thing, but “finger” sized ones are another. Keep it basic and clear.

3.     2. Be mindful of how much you ask your QB to check at the line, again relative to your level. Several times last night, Rivers with the Chargers seemed to be in an awful hurry towards the end of the play clock. Much has been made here in the San Diego media about him being allowed the freedom to change things up, but it is clear that it isn’t smooth sailing yet.

You as an OC or QB coach need to understand how comfortable your QB actually is with their reads and ability to change things into a better play. Don’t give them more options than they can process in the allotted time. I try and use an “if this, then that” type of process where the QB has a defined change to go to if they see a defined look.

The other option would be liberal use of a “look” cadence where you see what the defense is lined up in, and your cadence goes on something other than “one” and the offense looks to the sideline for a new play.

4.     3. Have fun! Texas A&M offensive coordinator Jake Spavital was asked why he allowed each of his backup QB’s to take shots down the field as their first plays in a 73-3 rout over Lamar this weekend. “Because it is fun!” Great answer.

5.     4. Do what you do. In the same vein, while A&M was dismantling #9 South Carolina IN South Carolina in Week 1, Kenny Hill was throwing the ball all over the place. Some A&M fans probably would have preferred to see the Aggies pound the rock a bit to take some time off the clock. The way Hill was throwing it around, that was the safest course to take! It was clear that he was comfortable, in command and was completely inside the heads of the South Carolina defense. Why take them off the hook, or take your foot off the gas? Against Lamar, sure….but against SEC foe the Gamecocks? Nope……

6.     5. Package, package, package…. I wrote about making plays look alike here and Seattle did that to perfection the other night, running variants of the fly sweep action to Percy Harvin.

Whenever you put in a new play, you really need to have an idea how many times a game you’re going to run it. If it is more than twice a game, then you’d better have something else that looks like it to start and then….isn’t.

******

Hey, there’s getting to be a ton of interest in the camp! We’re getting to the point on the calendar where flight prices are hitting their sweet spot and remember, the hotel with the best rates in the area only has 47 rooms. Camp details here and the Facebook event is here. Be sure and check the Facebook event for some food-related updates!