Wrapping up - almost!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

One Season Ends, Another Begins

Well, Monday night ended the collegiate football season, and what a display by Ohio State! I was rooting for Oregon, not out of any particular fan reason, and not for any particular dislike of Ohio State (unlike if, say, Texas or Notre Dame were playing, but fat chance of that!), but just because I like Oregon’s up-tempo fast-break style of play. I like the stress it puts on defenses…..well, most defenses. Hats off to Urban Meyer, who although I’ve stolen my share of concepts from him over the years (as far back as when he was at Bowling Green), I suppose I just didn’t realize how good he was. I got a pretty good idea when his 3^rd string QB helped beat Alabama, but last night cemented it.

OSU’s willingness to run the counter over and over again was admirable. And you might say, well it was working, so why not? Well, that brings up another related, interesting point…one of my good friends and fellow coaches, Winston Martin remarked to me the other day, that at the high school level, he (as a DC) pretty much figures that offensive coaches get bored easily, that we want to run through our playbook. And I’ll admit that there may be some validity to that. I know that I “get bored” easily sometimes and want to run some things just to show them. So last night got me wondering if I would be as willing to run the same play over and over again, even if it was working. I don’t know for sure, and I suspect that many of you playcallers out there assume that you would, but you might want to go back and check your old call sheets to verify that. But I do know that now it is in the forefront of my mind.

As far as those counters were concerned, another one of the coaches I used to work for, way back in the day was Fred Valko, and his comment was spot on, “The counter trey hasn’t been run that well since Riggins and Co.” I saw two different ones last night from OSU. The one they ran the most was what I call a “Skinny” – the guard and H-back pull. That H back/TE /FB type player did a great job all night long. The other one they ran (I only saw it once) was what many call a “Dart” where only the tackle pulls. I didn’t see the classic version of the counter, where both the guard and tackle pull, but I may have missed it.

We’ve had great success with the counter over the years. I’ve been blessed with very athletic tackles at many of my stops, and it really, really opens things up when you have the ability to pull them on plays. If you don’t have access to an athletic tackle, then you might run the “Skinny” variation. I don’t think that was OSU’s concern, I think they were more worried about Oregon’s big DEs crashing down in a hurry. So that would be another reason to run a Skinny. You might run the Dart if you were going to package the counter with a backside read, like you would with a zone read. I don’t remember if OSU did it that way or not, but that is a possibility. You can also package the “classic” version with the backside read as well, to help keep those DL at home a bit.

Once again, hats off to Coach Meyer and the Buckeyes. We very well may be seeing them again next year!

Now that college is over, that can only mean that the women’s season is starting! I talked about the two teams that folded last week – the Las Vegas Showgirlz and the Boston Militia. I’ve very pleased to report that it looks like both teams will continue in some form or fashion, Las Vegas as the Sin City Sundevils and Boston as….well, we don’t know yet, but they will have a team.

Both teams coming back do have questions. For any of his shortcomings, Coach Dion Lee of the Showgirlz had a pretty imaginative offensive mind and did an overall good job of using his personnel I thought. As I mentioned last week, he did a great job of getting his team hyped and convinced that they could beat the world. So I’ll be very interested to see how the new coach implements the offense and what kind of mindset he brings. I’ll just say this….please, please, whatever you do Coach, don’t become another one of those mind-numbingly boring double wing teams. Please remember that you’re in the entertainment capital of the world, and that football is supposed to be entertaining to fans. That is all……

The Boston team has an entirely different question. I’m sure the players and coaches will answer this in their minds right now, but I’ll be interested more by their actions come July, and that is, “what happens now that the money is gone?” And hey, I’ll freely admit that I have no clue as to who the new owner(s) is/are and what their personal wealth situation is. But I find it hard to believe that another owner will come in with the same resources available that their old one had (and if they do, count me as being extremely jealous). If that is the case, that the players/coaches may have to come up with more out of pocket than they did before, I just wonder how it will affect them. That’s not meant as a dig at them at all – they’ve kicked my butt two too many times on the field for me to be anything less than respectful to them – but that’s just another question going through my mind.

The Surge has put together some pretty good numbers this year from an athlete standpoint. If the veterans can regain their hunger after losing to Boston, similar to how they did in 2012, and the rookie class shows up ready to work and follows through, we could be pretty good. It’ll be very nice to get back to a two-platoon system. The last two years we haven’t had the numbers to do that. Not only did we have half the athletes, but also in effect half the coaching time. We’ll see how serious everyone is in just a couple of weeks!

NFL Conference Championships this weekend – who ya got?

New Year, New Changes

Hello and Happy New Year to everyone! Hope you all had a great holiday season, whichever ones you celebrate.

OK, so quite a bit has been going on since I last wrote….for me personally, I added on the role of Offensive Coordinator for the National City Bears, a men’s team that I was previously (2011-2013) either the OL coach, offensive coordinator or head coach of. It seems like a good time to get back into the creative side of things on offense. I may have mentioned in previous posts that I was tweaking my playbook to better streamline my terminology and system, and taking on this role will allow me to run with it and see what happens. I’m excited to implement some of the advances in the zone-read game that I’ve seen over the last couple of seasons, such as second-level defender reads and interior DL reads, rather than simply reading the backside DE (or frontside, if running pistol). There are also quite a few wrinkles in blocking by both fullbacks and H-back type players.

Of course, there is one downside to coaching men, and that is they use NFL rules, so the screen game (which I also wrote about recently) is going to need some timing work. But overall, being able to install pretty much a new playbook from the ground up is exciting!

On the women’s front, the news isn’t so good. Over the holidays, we’ve learned of two solid teams who aren’t coming back for 2015. The first, the Las Vegas Showgirlz, is a definite loss to us out west. They were a division opponent and always a good, physical game to play in. While it is true they never beat us, it was almost always a challenge. Coach Dion Lee usually had something up his sleeve for us that we had to be aware of. And even if he didn’t, he did a good job of making us think he did! Many of the players on that team are my friends, and there is always the possibility that someone will be able to resurrect the team, so I hope that happens. I mean, who doesn’t love a road trip to Vegas?

Not having a competitive team in Vegas means either 1) a very long and expensive road trip to Utah during the regular season (and a return one from them) or 2) playing a team that doesn’t really make much sense from a competitive standpoint. There are a few teams out there that would fit that bill, and I don’t think they want to play us any more than we want to play them. It doesn’t benefit either of us. However, we also know that it is still relatively early, so maybe a team that we don’t know about yet will come over to the WFA.

The other team was quite a shock, which I just heard about just Monday: our old nemesis, the Boston Militia. I never, ever thought that they would close up. It is akin to the Dallas Diamonds folding a couple of years ago – you just don’t think teams like that will ever go away. 

Let me be perfectly clear – I want teams like the Militia around. Even though we were 0-2 against them (2011 & 2014 national championships), they brought a standard of athleticism, coaching and organization unmatched by any other team. They became the team that everyone else in the country shot for. I never got to know any of their coaches – they always seemed sort of aloof. They were always cordial, but definitely business-like and distant. Having said that, I couldn’t help but respect them. One of their players sent out a Tweet regarding keeping a team going in Boston. I sincerely hope that is the case.

That’s about it for now…..let’s see how the NFL playoffs and the collegiate championship play out!

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!

Offensive Thoughts

A little bit of this, that and the other……

I was recently watching a DVD by Jim McNally, widely considered the Godfather of the modern zone run game. In this particular one, from this year’s COOL Clinic in Cincinnati, he is espousing a fundamental difference in everything I’ve been taught about run blocking. It is a bit unsettling to consider that what you’ve been teaching as base concepts may need to be reworked and rethought. I’ve been used to tweaks here and there for awhile, and in my offensive coordinator thinking I’ve made quite a few changes over the years. But the one thing that has remained constant has been the base technique, the base posture in drive blocking. I’ve had it confirmed over and over again by different coaches, outstanding ones, in clinics and practice sessions. The change that McInally is promoting would take a big rethinking, but it does make some sense. When I look back on my film over the years, I can see what he is saying the weakness is, happening. And so now I have to wonder if it is time to change. Coach McNally is speaking at the Las Vegas Glazier clinic in February, so I can certainly listen to him then but if I’m going to make the change I should probably do it earlier than that. So back to the DVD’s I go…..

Now, just last night, I see (on the same DVD) former NFL OL and now OL consultant Scott Peters start to challenge what I thought was “locked in stone” about pass pro punches and hip movement. His stuff made a whole lot of sense right away though, so it’ll be implemented for sure. He also explained how to counter a problem I’ve searched for a good answer to for quite some time – how to regain the advantage as a center when the NT/1-Tech is trying to attack your snap hand. Goes back to what both he and Coach McNally talked about – getting depth and hip placement.

Watching the San Diego Charger game Sunday night, and watched as Coach Mike McCoy, who has done an overall great job with the team I think, choose to punt the ball away. The only problem with that is that he was at midfield, with 4 yards to go for a first down with about 6:30 minutes left in the game and down by 9. If he didn’t think the chances were good to get the 4 yards (and I must say that they probably weren’t), then how did he expect his team to score twice in less time and with potentially worse field position?

Fortunately with the Surge we don’t have that problem much (to punt or not to punt). Not only are we not usually in a 4^th down situation, but when we are, 90% of the time the decision is to go for it. As a playcaller it makes it much easier knowing that you more than likely will have four downs to work with. On typical 3^rd and long situations, I may not feel like I have to get all of it back on 3^rd down. Most defenses however, just reflexively play to stop the deeper plays, and it really opens up the rest of the field.

I also think that the College Football Playoff Committee got it right. Baylor made a terrific case for getting in over TCU, but Oklahoma losing to Okie State apparently hurt both the Texas teams. I’m not at all sold on the notion that the B1G0 is a better conference than the Big XII, but Ohio State is playing really well. That they did it last week with their 3^rd string QB, a true Freshman is quite remarkable and a testament to Urban Meyer’s teaching ability and technique.

Just as a reminder if you need anything tuned up offensively or from a special teams standpoint, I can help with that. We don’t start practice until February, so if there is anything you’d like to install or get taught, hit me up and we can work something out. The best part is that everything would be specific to your team – your terminology, your schemes (unless that is something you want to change), with your personnel.

Mental Musings

I mentioned last week what a great sport football is, in part because it demands so much physically AND mentally. Sometimes, even the most talented player cannot thrive or even compete if their mental make-up isn’t up to par. We’ve all seen instances where a more talented team will fall to a team that is more technique-driven, more disciplined and better focused.

I remember coaching against Los Angeles Loyola High School back in 1995 when I was with Fountain Valley. We had the misfortune of playing them in the preseason, and then ended up meeting them again in the playoffs. They were ridiculously easy to game plan against; they sat in the most vanilla 3-4 alignment I’ve ever seen and their blitzes were also very basic. They did not have more than one or two players that had NCAA D-I talent, although I’m sure some of them went to the Ivy League or one of the Academies. They had flawless technique, relentless effort and pretty close to zero penalties. We went 0-2 that year against them.

You can also look no further than the team from the recent movie (and even better book), “When the Game Stands Tall” – Concord De La Salle. Although now they have an abundance of talent, back in the days during the movie and before, they had relatively few players making the jump to D-I ball. But when I watched them, I couldn’t help but say, “Wow!” As an OL coach I’m not a big fan of the Wing-T, but man…..the way they fired off the ball and their precision in doing so, and their effort – it just had me wondering why I sucked so badly. They beat Long Beach Poly, probably the most talent-driven high school in the country, twice. At the time, Poly had almost 5000 kids in the school. In their history, they’ve put over 60 (six-zero!) players into the NFL, and 16 in the last 20 years. We played them in 1997, and they beat us handily. The talent gap was just way too much for us to overcome. So why did they ever lose?

You see that in the women’s game as well. There are a couple of teams over the years that you look at their talent and think “wow….how do they lose?” I’m sure that a couple of coaches have thought the same thing about us, so it’s all good. But what I think happens in many cases is that coaches don’t push their talented players to be truly elite. Maybe they’re afraid of losing their star players by being too tough on them. Or maybe their players are “playing slow” because either they don’t put enough effort in to learning the playbook (which goes back to not being demanding enough) or because the system they’re playing in isn’t clear about what is supposed to happen.

Please note that I’m not putting all of this on coaches – certainly there are plenty of players who believe that their talent is enough to get by. And for 80% of the season that may be true. But champions are made in the other 20%, and the coach can do whatever s/he wants to as far as discipline but until the player herself buys into the fact that if she wants to get a ring she has to do more – expect more – from herself and her teammates, it isn’t going to happen.

What can be put on coaches are the following: 1) Demand excellence from your entire team, including your star players. They should be pushed harder than anyone, not only because they are expected to *be* more, but also because the rest of the team needs to see that no one is above correction and coaching. Needless to say, that also applies to team rules.

2) The system/terminology/communication on both sides of the ball has to allow your players to play “fast”. The trend by many teams is to try and eliminate as many words as possible in the play call, especially on offense. But what I’m finding is that the teams who are truly successful with that are also those who practice more than the twice a week that is typical of teams at our level. We as coaches need to be careful of not trying to mimic too much teams and systems that are successful at the high school or collegiate level, simply because of the advantage in practice time that they have over us.

I do believe that you can play fast at our level, and I believe that you can communicate effectively the play and responsibilities to your offense even when going in a no-huddle mode. I just don’t think you can have a full playbook using a single word system. I used to think that, but in looking around and seeing how much the game has evolved, I now believe that to counter what is being done to you, the calls need to be expanded. This means not only more words for words sake, but a system that also includes the formation, motion and snap count. Now, many teams have decided to go only on “one” and that is fine. It certainly keeps the verbiage down! But if your OL is struggling against a physically superior DL, you’re going to wish that you had some counter that you can use.

So, for me, I would have a “split” call…..first series of calls include snap count, formation and motion. Everyone would go and get into position. The next series of calls would be the snap count and the play itself and then the play is run. That keeps the memorization down – they don’t have to remember the formation, as they’re already in it, and then the snap count is being repeated again to them. So all they have to remember is the motion, and then listen for the play.

Sorry this got a little wordy…sort of ironic, given the topic, huh? But this is the sort of thing I think about each off-season, and I hope each coach out there re-examines what they do each year as well. The women’s game is growing in ability by leaps and bounds. Never has the old adage, “If you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse” been truer. Even though some teams have already started practices, this is the time to make changes. Doing the same things will probably only get you the same results. Do you want to be good for 80% of the season, or the final 20%?

Day of Thanks

This being the day before Thanksgiving, I thought it only appropriate to give thanks for all those who have helped me over the years. Hold on, because 25 years of help won’t be quick!

To the coach who gave me my first job, Steve Castle, a buddy that I’d played flag football with, I wish I knew where you were now, but I think of you often. He brought me on as a know-nothing assistant varsity OL coach in 1991 and then somehow retained me when he got the HC job at Westminster La Quinta the next year.

To George Berg, the head coach at Fountain Valley High…man, coming from three consecutive 2-8 seasons with Division 8 teams, onto a staff in Division 1, coming off an 12-1 year….I don’t know why you took a chance on me, but I’ll be forever grateful that you did. I know I got thrown into the fire a little sooner than was planned, and I know that ’94 was a rough year, but thanks for all you did for me, both professionally and personally. My family will never forget.

To Willy Puga (QB’s) and Hank Cochrane (OC) at FVHS – you guys gave me some serious tough love, but it made me understand what was important and how to prepare on a real staff. 12+ hour days are never fun, but with you guys they were tolerable. Hank, you’re still my guru, whether you like it or not. The stuff I learned from you is still in my playbook.

To Bill Williams, who was another guy who took me under his wing and introduced me to coaches and opportunities that I never would have had on my own, the lessons learned from you while working camps and clinics will always remain. I’ve got a sense of urgency and serious attention to detail because of you.

To Mike Barry, Pat Ruel, Mike Sherman and Homer Smith (RIP)…..you guys, who are at the top of the food chain as coaches, didn’t have to give of your time as you did – especially when I was no longer a high school coach (or you’d moved on to the NFL) and had nothing to offer you (recruits). You gave freely anyway and have instilled in me a spirit of helping out younger coaches who maybe didn’t have the opportunities that I did to interact with you or other high-level coaches. Your knowledge has probably made up 90% of mine.

To Dan Tovar – thanks for showing San Diego it could be done! The concepts you introduced are still used and will always be in the back of my mind when designing an offense.

To Mike Suggett – what a ride it’s been! We don’t always agree, but we’ve got each other’s backs and I think it has translated pretty well onto the field.

Perhaps most importantly, without some pretty good players coming through to make me look smart, none of it works. From Mike Nelson (La Quinta ’92) and Don Casey (LQ ’93) who were my first All-CIF players, through Brad Hanson, Brian Hart, & Justin Speegle at Fountain Valley, along with a BUNCH of All League players. To Katrina Walter, Lela Vaeo, Christina Carrillo & Lindsay Hood, the first All Americans, and now to Jessica Cable and Eboni Chambers carrying it on. To Moses Everett, my first male All American. Those are just the OL, and I’m singling those out because, well – they deserve it. As an OC/HC there are a whole bunch of the “skinny people” who helped out as well – so many that I can’t possibly list them all, so won’t for fear of forgetting someone. But I appreciate you.

Finally, thank you to the sport of football. There is none else like it. No other tests physical and mental toughness the same way. No other depends on 33 different positions doing their job on each play, lest disaster strike or when they do their jobs, greatness ensues. So many life lessons have been taught and there are so many left to learn. Thank you…..