National Championship & Other Thoughts

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

New Year, New Action

I hope everyone had a great holiday season (realizing that some of you may still be in the middle of celebrating yours). After gorging on the buffet that is College Bowl Season (is there really any better time of year?) I’m ready to start getting down to the nitty-gritty of preparing for another season.

I left off in my last post referencing only a “men’s team” that I’m going to because at the time it wasn’t announced by the team itself yet. Now I can say that I’m with the San Diego Nighthawks. Our league is yet to be determined, but I’m confident that it will be a competitive one.

I’m beyond excited to get this thing going….I’ve been interviewing potential offensive assistant coaches, streamlining the playbook, reviewing film from last year and continuing to research ways to improve. One item that I picked up is a game planning system by Coach Keith Grabowski of The Coaches’ Edge (www.thecoachesedge.com). It is a spreadsheet system that allows you to plan out your practices, ensuring that you go into games with plays that you’ve actually practiced (quite a concept!). You put in your game plan, and it spits out practice scripts, wrist bands and call sheets. So far, I like it a lot. (Hey, if you buy it, or anything else on Coaches Edge, please refer them with my e-mail: kmring@gmail.com. I hear we get $10 coupons or something.)

In reviewing the film from last year, I think that some of the players weren’t aware they were being filmed, let alone that anyone was going to look at it! A lot of walking around, or stopping after an initial hit. That’s not going to cut it this year and I think we’ll have enough competition for spots that it will become painfully obvious to those who don’t put forth maximum effort how quickly they can be on the sidelines, resting, next to me.

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One of my other new ventures is taking on an individual high school offensive lineman for skill and technique development. It’s my first time in this non-team setting, so I’m very interested how it’ll play out. I met with him and his Dad this past weekend and I basically told them that they would be my guinea pigs – maybe that wasn’t the best angle to take, but I don’t know what else to tell them. I think they were expecting to get “sold” by me and I don’t even have a sales pitch. I just told them, “If you want to get better, I’ll help you get better.”

We’re going for half hour to 45 minute sessions. I think that’ll be plenty long enough – when you’re taking every rep, I think you’ll be pretty tired afterwards, even if my goal isn’t to kill you in a conditioning type of deal.

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On Sunday, the Surge is having their tryouts…..it’s gonna be really strange hearing about what went on, who showed up, etc. and not be a part of it. I will miss them.

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I can’t remember the last time I couldn’t think of an obvious frontrunner in the NFL. All three of who I think are the favorites (Carolina, New England and Arizona) looked extremely bad recently when faced with motivated opponents. I’ll tell you who I’m rooting for though: Arizona, followed by Seattle. Why you ask? Because of their coaches of course – that’s how I base all my non-Chargers rooting!

I recently saw the excellent “A Football Life” episode on Bruce Arians. Count me as a fan for sure. If you don’t know much about Coach Arians, I highly recommend it. You may become a fan as well. My Seahawks fandom isn’t because of Pete Carroll – he’s a good coach, and I do like him – but for my long time mentor, Pat Ruel. Pat is a great guy and I hope he can win another Lombardi Trophy.

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Who do you have in the college championship? I wasn’t sold on Clemson, but holy moly they looked good! However, I’m going to go with Alabama in a close one, just because of their previous big game experience, and I think that if you give Nick Saban enough time to prepare for you, you’re in trouble.

That’s all for now – have a great week!

Change in the Air

There is no doubt that this is one of the toughest blogs I’ve ever written. Last night I told my Surge OL that I wouldn’t be back with them this year. Previously, I’d told Coach Suggett. It’s been awhile since I’ve left a team that I had a great relationship with – probably 1993 when I left Westminster La Quinta for Fountain Valley. I loved the kids at La Quinta, it was just that Fountain Valley was such a great opportunity for me that I couldn’t “not” do it. The situation I’m in this year is similar….I can’t announce the new team yet (that will come out tomorrow or Friday), but it is a men’s team here in San Diego that is doing everything the right way. But more so than that, it has a culture already somewhat ingrained of a blue collar work ethic. These guys will put in the work to become great.

The best part of coaching is the relationships you forge, not only with your other coaches, but also with your players. I’m still friends with a couple of players from that 1993 La Quinta team. There are Surge players I’ve had the unique opportunity to coach a couple of for 5-10 years. I’ve watched them go from raw rookies to, in some cases, All American players. I’ve won multiple national championships with a couple. They mostly know what I’m going to say before I say it. Those are the types of relationships that you don’t leave without a lot of regret.

Plus, there are three second-year players that I’m really going to miss in their development. We had a great time last season bringing them along and I feel certain that a couple of them will end up being really good players. I’ll be watching from the stands, at the very least.

The Surge coaches and the good natured ribbing we indulged in will definitely be missed. When you’ve coached with someone as long as I have with Mike Suggett, Mike Vargas and Rashoud McCoy (on and off, mostly on, since 2003 for all of them) then you’re gonna miss them a bunch. Carrie Suggett, Andrea & Bill Grant and Will Harris are others that make the long days of practice bearable with their wit and humor.

This will in no way curtail my support for women’s football in general, or the Surge in particular. Nor do I see it as interfering with the RS Football Camp in November. I’ll be keeping an eye on what is happening around the league, and call it as I see it.

***

So, what exactly is the attraction of this new gig? Well, I wanted to see what would happen if I was “all in” with a men’s team from the very start.  The last time that happened was 2010, and we had a pretty decent season. We were definitely outmanned at a few spots on both sides of the ball, but overall it was a fun season. Once I saw the Surge come into existence (rising out of the old SoCal Scorpions who I was with from 2003-07), I knew that playing for national championships again was something I wanted to do. That opportunity is still there with the Surge, but the desire to better myself as an all-around coach was too much this time.

In this case we’ve got very solid ownership, a good coaching staff and a great group of players to choose from (yes, we will probably be cutting some people that would otherwise like to play). That’s a rare combination. So in order to give us the best chance of success with everything that is in place, I felt I needed to concentrate on only the guys as the OC. I’ve got some new assistant coaches to get up to speed on my offense, and I’m still in a post-mortem analysis of things in last year’s offense that can be changed to make things more streamlined. I alluded to the high I get when creating and nurturing an offense here, so those that know me shouldn’t be too shocked about this move.

We’re going to start coaches’ meetings in January, then start off season weekly OTA’s in March. Twice a week practices start in May, then first games in early July. Last year we only had 8 practices before our first game, this year I want to have 16 in addition to the OTA’s. I took last season’s opening loss very personally, and that kind of thing isn’t going to happen again. Plus, we’re playing in a much more competitive league….we’re going to have to be hitting on all cylinders to win the league, and if we do, it’ll mean something. Whether we’ll play for a national championship or not, I don’t know. Considering that there are over 600 men’s teams across the country, I’ll settle for recognition in the Top Twenty. Then we’ll win it all in 2017.

That’s what is new with me!

Identity Crisis

One of my very first posts was sort of a background piece on what my favorite offense is. You can read that here. What I’ve noticed over the past couple of weeks is that some teams have lost their way, strayed away from what got them good. In particular, my favorite college team, Texas A&M, has really strayed….they’re almost unrecognizable from when Johnny Manziel was lighting up the scoreboards.

Certainly, differences in personnel have something to do with that. The Aggie’s QB’s are inexperienced (although so was Manziel) and both sometimes seem a bit lost. Also, it doesn’t appear that A&M’s list of NFL-ready OL is going to continue this year. Both the run blocking and absolutely the pass pro have taken steps backwards this year. But to go from a team who rivaled Baylor and Oregon in how fast they got plays off to one who almost seems like they want to milk the clock, and who went from a pure version of the Air Raid offense to some sort of “almost Auburn, but sort of something else” offense created nothing more than some mush. Offensive Coordinator Jake Spavital is taking a lot of the heat (and rightly so – it’s his name on the offense), but I’m wondering if the off-season hire of Dave Christensen doesn’t have more to do with it. Coach Christensen was hired as the OL coach and run game coordinator, and it appears that the move away from Air Raid style play calling may be related to his influence. That’s not necessarily a knock on Coach Christensen either – he was hired to bring his experience in.

That extra influence gets to my point about an Identity Crisis…..you can’t have too many cooks in your offense. When I was at Fountain Valley High, there were some things we just weren’t going to do – it wasn’t in our DNA (or that of our OC). Right now, there are some things I would only do in an extreme situation – like line up under center in an I formation. That’s just not what I want to do.

My base offense these days is shotgun spread. We feature a zone and gap-based run game, some fly sweep, various screens and a complete drop back package, mostly out of one back sets. Now, within that base offense, I can tweak the playcalls to fit my personnel.  In 2012 with my men’s team, we had two absolute studs at RB, so I ran more two back sets than normal. But it was still out of the ‘gun, and we still had 3 WR (didn’t have much in the way of a TE). If my QB is a runner, then I add in more options for him to do so. But it doesn’t change the base offense!

If my OL is huge, then the zone game becomes more prevalent, while if they’re more mobile (read: smaller), then I use more of the gap schemes and perimeter game. Again, it doesn’t change who we are. If a player comes to me and says, “Hey Coach – why don’t we run this XYZ play?”, I’ll consider it, if there is a good way to work it into what we do already. I don’t want to stray too much from our identity, at least during the season.

The time to look outside for ideas is now. There’s stuff that I see from time to time that I really like. The first thing I do when I see something is write it down, in play diagram form. Then, I look at it to see if what is being done fits into existing terminology. If it does, then great – it goes into the playbook. If not, then I see if I can either a) tweak a piece of the play to fit into existing terms without losing what I liked about the play in the first place, or b) see if I can add a piece of terminology that can be used in future situations as well. If I can’t do either, then chances are I won’t keep the play. I really don’t want to add terminology if it is just going to be used in one play. (The exception is for trick plays – those can be one-offs.)

The coaching point to all this, is stay true to yourself. If you’re the coordinator, it’s your name out there. In Coach Spavital’s case, he’s probably going to get himself fired after this season. It’s OK to consider outside ideas, but you’ve ultimately got to do what you think is best for the team. Getting too far away from that slows down your thinking during a game, and probably (my guess only, as an entirely unqualified psychiatrist) means you don’t exude as much confidence in your game plan to your players as you normally would. That can start a death spiral that overcomes your offense.

Know yourself and be true to yourself.  

The Silly Season

One week after everyone sharing what they’re thankful for, many coaches have a little less to be thankful for – such as a job. Others have more to be thankful for – usually a better job. But we all tend to lose sight of the fact that coaching changes are hard on an awful lot of people. Rex Ryan had an interesting piece on that here – it’s worth a look.

And to think that it is only December 02, here’s a list already of all the head coaching jobs that have come open – jobs list. Crazy, huh? I mean, you’ve got a guy down in Georgia, Mark Richt, who all he does is go 9-3 pretty much every year, and he gets fired.

Now, I know that some people say, “Well, that’s what happens when you make a boatload of money – your job security is nil.” That’s true, and I know that everyone signs up for the gig. But still….just the thought of having your livelihood depend on a bunch of 18-21 year olds would keep me awake at night. Sure, I’d love a shot at it sometime. I always figured that if I won the lottery, I’d head up to San Diego State and volunteer my time. I’d make them hold me accountable to whatever they assigned me, even if it was Assistant Tight Ends Coach, or maybe I’d go over to University of San Diego (FCS) and be a position coach (yeah, I think I’d do a good job) on a volunteer basis. But having to do it for a living?

Some have asked me why I don’t give it a shot. The answer is simple: I believe that coaching collegiate football is a young, single man’s game at the entry level. You’ve generally got to put in your time as a GA or coaching intern. The competition for those spots is insane and the reward is making about $12,000 a year to start and doubling as a RA in a dorm somewhere in Kansas or South Dakota. I’m 54 and a home owner, with multiple kids. I’m not interested in moving every 2-3-4 years and taking an initial wage cut. But would I like to compete at that level? Hell yeah.

Really, the high school ranks are extremely competitive. You look around at the top programs in Southern California, and you won’t find better coaching anywhere. As far back as in the 90’s when I was coaching in Orange County (as I mentioned last week), and going up against some of the coaches I did, heck – even back then I saw more stunts, twists, varied fronts, blitzes and disguised coverages than I see in the semi-pro level now.

Here’s the thing about top-level high school coaching: If you’re not somewhat of a “grinder” (at least by today’s standards) chances are you’re going to get exposed. Back then, I put in 44-48 hours a week during the season – on top of my “real” 40 hour a week job. Monday through Thursday I was at the school from 3:00 until  about 7:00. Friday it was 3:00 until about 11:00. Saturday morning we were in at 7:00AM and out at about 6:00PM. Sunday it was 9:00AM until 7:00PM (or when we were done). Granted, that 1990’s technology didn’t include great timesavers such as Hudl. But I hear now of a lot of staffs doing their film review on their own, and I can tell you from experience that there’s nothing quite like reviewing your position’s film with your head coach (and/or OC) also there, asking questions.

I can tell you this, I can think of only one time (thanks, La Puente Bishop Amat) that I was truly surprised by something an opponent did. (They broke out a zone blitz in the ’96 playoffs. Caught us off guard.) Other than that, we were *prepared*….

Getting back to the jobs situation, I’ve also heard people ask why more high school coaches don’t go to the collegiate ranks in California. In some states, like Texas, you see it all the time. The coaching there isn’t any better, but the high school job security is non-existent. In Texas, if you’re a high school coach, that’s pretty much what you do. You may have one other class, but if you’re a Head Coach, you’re paid to do just that. If you get fired, you’re out of the school (and many times, so are your assistants). It’s a very collegiate-like experience, so they have absolutely no hesitation in jumping to a higher level. They don’t have job security now, so what difference does it make?

In California on the other hand, coaches (at public schools anyway – private may be different), only receive a stipend for coaching, maybe $5,000 a year on top of their teaching salary. If they get fired from their coaching job, they’re still teachers and still get their teaching salary. They just lose their stipend. They may or may not look for other jobs in their district. If they’re a long-tenured teacher, their opportunities outside their district may be limited – maybe the new district won’t accept all their years of service, for example. So what eventually happens is that you have schools who have a surplus of teachers and a shortage of coaches. That’s where guys like me come in – “walk ons”, or staff members but not faculty members. I would get the same stipend (although as an assistant, mine was generally in the $2,500 range for the season). At Fountain Valley, besides me, there were three other former varsity offensive line coaches at the school. One was the AD, one was the JV OL coach, and one was the frosh OL coach. Me, as the walk on, was the varsity guy. Sort of a weird situation.

But that is why you don’t see a lot of people jumping to the collegiate ranks out of California – they have job security now, and are hesitant to give it up. Makes perfect sense to me.

Thanksgiving

Last year at this time, I gave thanks for all the coaches and players I’ve worked with. You can see that post here. It’s easy to be thankful for those who have played for you, coached with you and taught you. Mentors are never forgotten. Loyal players are never forgotten. But this year, I wanted to thank those coaches who have given me the painful lessons that nevertheless provide growth.

I was inspired to talk about this topic this past week because I saw that two long-time Orange County/Southern Section coaches are retiring. Both of them I coached against when I was at Fountain Valley, in the years that forged me as a coach. John Barnes, of Los Alamitos High is stepping down after about 35 years at Los Al. Back in the day, Los Al was about the only spread team in town, and they lit it up on the scoreboard. He was truly ahead of his time. I never would have thought I’d become a devotee of his style of offense. I think we ended up 2-3 against them in the time I was at FV.

Dave White from Huntington Beach Edison is also stepping down. The rivalry between Fountain Valley and Edison is very similar to Army-Navy, except without the healthy respect for each other. Edison has since become a statewide power, while FV has unfortunately not reached the same heights. But when I was there, we were 4-1 against them. Coach White’s “Wide 9” defense was always one that I had to prepare extra hard for….not only because of its’ unique nature, but also because of what the game itself meant. It was one of those things where if we went 1-9, it was OK if the “1” was against Edison.

Hearing about those two outstanding coaches caused me to look up one other former adversary – Bill Pendleton of Anaheim Esperanza High. He was the DC for the Aztecs, under Gary Meek, who was a great coach in his own right. I knew very few DC’s, but Bill I knew. Always felt like it was a personal battle when I coached against Coach Pendleton. His position was the DL, so that made it a little more up close and personal for me. The Aztecs ran a 46 style defense, and stunted and twisted their DL/LB almost every play.

His DL taught me one of my most valuable lessons: In 1994, it was my first year as the OL coach at Fountain Valley. In the first half, we’d given up about 6 sacks and were losing badly in Week 10. We were headed for a 4-6 season, and I seriously thought I was in over my head (another example of that will be told below). I started in on my guys at halftime, in the locker room – ranting and raving. After I was done, my senior center, Bryan Erickson, calmly looked up at me and said, “OK coach – you’ve told us what is wrong. Now tell us how to fix it.” Heck, if I had an answer, I wouldn’t have been yelling.

In my time at Fountain Valley, I think we were only 1-4 against the Aztecs, in 1996 when we won the league title was our only victory. Those lessons from Esperanza were sometimes painful ones, but oh so valuable. As a side note, when I looked up Coach Pendleton and Coach Meek, I found they were both still coaching at Esperanza – Pendleton as the DL coach, and Meek as the RB coach – just enjoying life as position coaches doing the thing they love. I’m happy for them.

Finally, Coach Larry Toner from Anaheim Servite….one of the most unique high school coaches I’ve ever run in to. One time when I had to go over to their campus to exchange film, I walked into Coach’s classroom. He was teaching Latin, which in itself was unusual. He also taught European History. Anyway, the Friars ran a flex defense. The first time (in ’94) that I coached against it, they held us to -22 yards rushing….yeah, minus 22 yards. The thing is, they were in our league and division (D-1, Sunset, the top league in Southern Section) the year before, and in ’94 they got dropped down to D-5 and the Empire League. We were the first former Sunset team they faced and they kicked our butts. The quote in the paper the next day was from Coach Toner who said, “I guess we *don’t* belong in the Sunset League after all.” Believe me, that stung….we managed to go 3-1 against them while I was there though, so at least the pain for that ’94 loss didn’t last long.

Finally, more recently there is a coach named Ed Rycroft. I’m not sure where he coached at the high school or collegiate level, but he’s the one DC in semi-pro (other than my own head coach, Winston Martin) that I definitely have to have my A game for. I’ve run up against him 5-6 times since 2009, and I’m either 3-2 or 3-3 against him. I’m thankful for coaches like him at this level, who continue to inspire me to be better.

And this year, to close out, I did want to mention a couple of the “skinny guys” that I’m really thankful for. I’ve mentioned a few times that I totally deconstructed my playbook this offseason and built it back up. Some of the things in the system were , um, different than what has been traditionally done at this level. So I want to tell Mike Clark and Cam Cameron how much I appreciate them, their efforts in not only learning the offense but in helping out their teammates who struggled with it, and for having my back in general. You’re good guys – thank you.

When this is finally posted, Thanksgiving will be winding down for many, but I wanted to let you all know that you can find things to be thankful for all year, and in many different ways. Sometimes they just don’t initially look like positives. Have a great weekend!

I'm Back - with a Camp Recap!

I tell you – being out of your house for a month and a half (with another month to go) because of a “plumbing malfunction” (to put it lightly and cleanly) can really mess with the efficiency of your day. I’m one of those people who enjoy routine in my daily life simply because it frees up space in my head to think about other things (like this blog, or my call sheet, or my playbook, etc.) that need to be done. So for the past couple of weeks, I’ve been out of my element a little and devoting all my “free brain space” to putting on the 2^nd Annual RS Football Camp.

We had the camp this past Saturday and Sunday. About 35 campers from various teams were there, of all different abilities and experience levels. I know I had a plan in place for the sessions that I taught, but that it quickly changed when I saw the relative lack of experience of the non-Surge OL I had. Being able to break things down in an almost semi-private atmosphere was really good for them I think. They were able to ask all the questions they wanted, and I had one of my second year players there as a demonstrator. It really opened the rookies’ eyes to see someone who was in their exact shoes just the year before at our first camp now being a leader of sorts and holding her own very well in the competitive portion of the drills.

The guest coaches who came down were excellent as always. Nate Benjamin from the Phoenix Phantomz, Scott McCarron from the Seattle Majestics and Angel Rivera from the Dallas Elite all were at the heart of what the camp is all about – getting players better. In Nate’s case, we’ve coached with him more than we’ve coached against him, but we have faced him in the regular season. Both Scott and Angel have been on the other sideline when the stakes were higher – in the playoffs. But the fact that we might meet again this year didn’t stop them for a minute from giving 100% to our players.

Coaching players you don’t know is fun. They aren’t bored with your jokes! Many of my players know what I’m going to say before I say it. Getting in front of a new audience is invigorating, and it really lets you know whether or not you’ve simplified things down enough to get them to understand what you’re saying. When you coach someone for an entire year, there is ample opportunity to re-explain, try different ways of communicating a concept, etc. But here, in order to be considered a success, the players have to be able to “get it” quickly.

This year as a whole, we taught very little, if any, scheme. We just taught technique, and then related how that particular technique would fit into whatever their team was doing.

***

Speaking of technique, I thought I’d list out some of the resources I’ve been using to make tweaks to my drills and overall thought. I mentioned these to the players at the camp, so wanted to put them here at least as a reminder to them:

I’ve long expounded on the benefits of X and O Labs’ site. You can go there here. In particular, the OL at the camp will find much of this article familiar. They have quality articles every week, and it is still only $35 (or so – my membership is up in May) a year. Highly worth it. They’re also on Facebook and on Twitter at @XandOLabs.

If you’re involved at all with OL play you need to follow LeCharles Bentley. His Twitter feed is at @OLineWorld65 and his website is at lbolineperformance.com. He’s got the only facility in the world dedicated to the building of offensive linemen. He really digs into detail about how the body works, and the little details of stance, steps, etc. that make a huge difference. Even if you don’t agree with something he says (as I have a couple of times), he’s got science and experience behind him and I promise that you’ll at least revisit why you do the things you do. And that is a huge part of growth……

Finally, you should follow Coach Matt Jones, the Asst OL coach from Tulane University. You can best find him under “LinemanLunch” on either Facebook or Twitter @LinemanLunch. Coach posts almost daily a short clip of OL doing the things they do. They serve as GREAT examples of how you want your players to do the same things. Let’s face it – the high level techniques are pretty much universal. Everybody wants a good base, good drive, aggressive nature, etc. These clips provide visual reinforcement of the concepts you’ve taught at practice.

That's it for now. It's good to be back!