A Christmas Wish

My intent is to keep this short…dunno how that’ll work! First of all, for everyone who celebrates Christmas, I hope you had an awesome one!

Here are my football-coaching related wishes for you and the sport:

For both players and coaches (especially at the men’s level), I hope you treat the game as your personal “big time”. I had the pleasure of sitting down with 3-4 other high school coaches to talk with Bob Cope (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Cope) about 18 years ago. He talked a lot about the business of the profession, and the one thing that stuck with me is this, “The Big Time is wherever you’re at right now.” I hear a lot of players (almost always men and some coaches) say things like, “It’s only semi-pro.” That drives me crazy. Why do it if you’re not going to put 100% into it? Heck, I coached my son’s 9-year old winter baseball team one year. I brought a football coaches’ perspective to the practice. I had a plan, I assigned areas of responsibility for my coaches, I made sure the practices were upbeat, organized and fun. One of the parents said something about “a lot of effort for a Little League team” and my reply was, “Do they deserve any less than my best just because they’re 9?” It’s the same thing at whatever level you’re at – semi-pro, women’s, high school or youth. Those athletes who are busting their butt for you (or the coaches if you’re a player) deserve your best. I hope you bring it each and every practice.

For coaches, may you not run boring offenses. If you do, please win. Especially at the women’s level when we are trying to attract fans, there’s nothing worse than running a boring offense and losing. Winning cures everything, so if you can be dominant with boring, OK. Otherwise, remember that we’re in the entertainment business.

Along those lines, please don’t underestimate what your players are capable of doing and learning. Stretch their limits and you’ll be amazed.

Finally, may you never stop learning. I’ve been going to coaching clinics each year since 1991. But what impressed me was seeing Herb Meyer, who holds the San Diego Section record for wins, sitting in the front row and taking notes until the day he retired. Coach John Konecki of the Chicago Force (also two-time Team USA coach and Illinois high school state champion) and I bounce ideas off each other, despite the very real possibility that we’ll be opponents in 2014. Nick Saban recently invited Lane Kiffin down to Tuscaloosa to evaluate the Alabama offense.

There’s always either something new to learn, or a new and better way of getting something done, or teaching it to your players. When it comes to helping your program, it doesn’t matter where those ideas come from.

That’s it – it’s time to settle down for the Bowl Season, which is my favorite time of the year, where teams pull out all of the stops. I hope you enjoy it. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in 2014.

"Handiwork"

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how it is “all in the feet” and the critical nature of having fundamentally sound footwork. That post applies to all levels of football – you see poor footwork all over the place. This post is going to reference pretty much only the women’s game, because one glaring weakness I see in it is the use (or lack thereof) of their hands, especially when it comes to pass pro and pass rush.

If you watch much film of different teams in the women’s game, one thing becomes apparent – most of them can’t pass block very well. Part of that (footwork plays a huge role as well) is that there is a decided lack of “punch” by the OL. You see DL all the time getting into the bodies of OL and then getting past or simply bull rushing them backwards into the QB. But what I find interesting is that the DL don’t use their hands very well either, as a rule. You see a ton of swim moves being attempted, you see a boatload of spin moves, but rarely do you see a fully-committed rip move – let alone a good lean and rip. I can’t remember ever seeing a DL go in to swat down the hands of an OL, at least in a game.

So why isn’t hand fighting being stressed in the women’s game? I don’t know – I can’t speak for other coaches. Maybe they think the women’s upper body strength isn’t where it should be to do that well. Possibly they talk about it early on and then just don’t reinforce it. I see an awful lot of female OL wearing forearm pads. Maybe if you’re on a double wing or Wing-T team and you’re teaching the Crowther Progression I can see that. Otherwise, forearm pads on OL went out in the 70’s for good reason – if the DL is getting that close to you, their chances of beating you in pass pro went up a ton! Think about it: pass rush moves only work close in. Try swimming someone from 2 feet away, or ripping, or spinning (although we see that all the time). They don’t work if you as the OL have them locked out.

As with anything else, the punch and pass pro in general have to be practiced. You can’t just tell an OL to “hit someone” in pass pro and expect it to turn out well for your QB. As one of my mentors, former Colorado, USC and Detroit Lions OL coach Mike Barry said, “Pass pro is not a natural act. When you are kids growing up, you don’t say to each other, ‘Hey let’s go out in the backyard and practice our pass pro.’”

The virtue of patience must be instilled in your OL in order to be effective pass protectors. I tell mine, “You have to be patient, but not passive.”  Some players look at the two qualities as being the same, so I try to explain that by being patient they can put the DL in the position they want them, and *then* dominate them. In this case patience is both mental and physical – when you’re drilling the punch, you can’t allow the OL to get their heads forward, otherwise your body ends up being too close to the DL.

Hand fighting in the run game is also underutilized, I think. It seems like female players are afraid to hold, to grab cloth in an otherwise legal manner. The only team I’ve ever seen that had a legitimate fear of holding was the Sacramento Sirens, and after playing them at their place, I can understand why – their referees were refugees from the 1970’s, when no type of hand use or extended arms was allowed. Those guys were ridiculous. Anyway, I think that grabbing cloth should be encouraged, HOWEVER if you teach it, you also have to drill the heck out of the feet. Most holding penalties are due to lazy feet, not lazy hands. Please note that I never tolerate what I call “lazy” holding – when a player just basically bear hugs a defender, or otherwise gets her hands outside the defender’s framework.

When you’re drilling the punch, whether it be in the run game or in pass pro, let me pass along a tip I picked up from Bill Williams of the FCPGA 23 years ago: When a scout player is holding a shield, have them hold it so that the handles face away from her, and towards the blocker. This accomplishes two things: 1) How often have you seen a drill devolve into two people standing chest to chest with the shield up over their heads? Keeping the shield handles away from the scout forces them to cradle it on the bottom, with the top nestled up under their chin. It keeps the shield close to the defender’s body, where it should be. It lessens the opportunity of a scout player to become a “backyard all-star” by easily shedding the blocker with an unrealistic target. 2) The handles of the shield now become the target for the blocker. They are tighter than the edges of the shield (which many people use as landmarks when they teach grabbing cloth), and give the blocker something to hold onto. Using them as a target will get your players out of being used to punching too wide and may eliminate some holding calls.

We throw the ball quite a bit on the Surge. With the exception of last year when we had drastically different personnel, we normally throw between 275-300 times a year. Our average number of sacks allowed each year is 6. In 2010, when we were still the SoCal Scorpions, we gave up 4. We don’t have a large offensive line. They are mobile and have good footwork, but I think what sets them apart on pass pro is the use of their hands in the punch. The hands are crucial folks. Right now, from what I see across the country it is one of the biggest improvements I can see that is neglected in the women’s game.

My Favorite Offense

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 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 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, 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.

Specials Revisited

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It's All in the Feet

Among the offensive line at the men’s and women’s semi-pro level, there is a perception of an almost universal weakness – they can’t move. A lot of times, that is true – they can’t. Perhaps you may remember one of my earlier posts where I talked about assumptions, and that one of them was that the OL were the worst athletes on the field. That will largely remain true, but too often I see OL that “could” move if they were taught “how” to move.

Now, we’re not talking about “dancing bears” here. We’re talking about efficiency in footwork. Making sure that each step gets a result. When an OL coach watches his players do a rep or run a play, he should be watching from the feet up. After all, the feet will move before the hands ever make contact, so why wouldn’t you watch the feet first, then move your vision up the hands?

Probably the single phrase that my guys and gals get tired of hearing from me is, “Gain ground with your first step!” Even if that step is supposed to be lateral, they’d better be doing more with it than stepping in place or stepping under themselves.

How often have you heard a coach say, “Oh, we can’t run that counter play – the OL will never get there.” Before you throw all those pulling schemes into the trash, make sure you find out *why* the OL isn’t getting there. I can promise you that more likely than not, when they’re pulling, they’re stepping under themselves which makes them get to the point f attack a step late.

Same thing on pass pro – I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen tackles get beat quickly because they’re not gaining any depth on their kick slide (and really, *if* they kick slide is an issue too). But since they don’t get any depth, they have to turn out quickly against the defender, and that in turn gives them a soft shoulder to attack. It all snowballs into a sack, and it all starts from not getting depth on the first step.

When we practice pass pro, we do an awful lot of it without our hands – just getting our feet into position. Bobby Knight stresses the same thing in basketball, by playing with “your hands in your belt” – he says that “defense is in the feet” and really, pass pro isn’t too much different than defense in basketball. I find that the focus of simply “hitting someone” is overemphasized, and the skill set it takes to be a truly great pass protector is rarely practiced.

I believe that by spending more time looking at your OL’s feet and continually correcting inefficient steps, not only will you be able to run more varied blocking schemes that keep the defense playing with doubt, but that your pass pro will improve as well. And when that improves, your QB’s confidence will soar and your passing game will become much more dangerous.

Special Teams Shout Out

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Process

Recently on 60 Minutes there was an episode about Nick Saban. Now, I don’t particularly like Nick Saban. I know one coach (who is in the NFL now) who worked for him and absolutely hated it. I know he had an offensive coordinator who couldn’t wait to leave – so much so he voluntarily took a position coach job at another school. There are stories about Saban discouraging the administrative people in his office from making eye contact with him, lest it make him feel like he has to make small talk with them. Heaven forbid…..anyway, suffice to say I’m not a fan. I respect his results, of course – he’s doing something right on the field, but at what cost? There’s gotta be a human cost there somewhere.

But it was with interest that I watched the segment. The narrator talked about what Saban calls “The Process” and how he wrote it down 12 years ago. Imagine my surprise when what the narrator started to describe sounded like it came straight from one of Coach John Wooden’s books!

One of the main tenants of Coach Wooden was that it wasn’t so much about what the opposing team was doing, but what your team is or isn’t doing. He felt that as long as you did your job to the best of your ability, as close to perfect as possible, that winning would take care of itself. Coach was famous for his lack of interest in scouting opponents – even when it wasn’t nearly as prevalent as it is now, he steadfastly didn’t do it, preferring instead to concentrate on doing that which would make his own team better at what they did.

This was the heart of the segment on Coach Saban. His fanatical attention to detail, his upbringing in West Virginia and the lessons taught to him by his father, Nick Sr. But I’m not sure you could find two diametrically opposed personalities in coaching – Wooden and Saban. Now, from what I’ve read, Coach Wooden may have been a bit more prickly then is generally assumed, and the 60 Minutes segment made Coach Saban look almost human, so nothing is always exactly as it seems.

I’ve always attempted to style myself after Coach Wooden. I like to praise in public and chastise in private (unless it is just with the OL – then I don’t mind pointing out errors, because maybe then someone else won’t repeat them, but I hardly ever want the rest of the offense to ever have a reason to disparage the OL – it happens enough from the fans and others not in the know). I like to think that I’m demanding, without being a dick about it. If the same mistake is made multiple times, then sure – voices are going to be raised. But my normal style of coaching is to explain, demonstrate and then break down the technique or idea into parts. If mistakes are made then, I try to lace the correction with some humor.

Where I need to improve, I think, is in my standards. Some of my players may be thinking, “You mean he’s going to be pickier???” But yes – in a sense. I need to be more aware of basic fundamentals at all times. Pointing out when knee bend isn’t achieved, or when pad level could be better. There must still be room for praise – players need it, when it is deserved. Empty praise is quickly seen through, and that praise will mean more when they know they’ve earned it. But gentle, firm correction is essential. Degrading, yelling for no reason, and personal criticism is the last resort of a poor coach, in my opinion.

It is a process, that is for sure. No matter what I think of him, Coach Saban is getting results with his, even if he may have stolen it from one of the greatest coaches of all time. But what am I complaining about – so did I!