Coach and Coordinator Podcast

On today’s Coach and Coordinator podcast, host Keith Grabowski welcomes Jason Miran, Offensive Coordinator at Bucknell University. Miran was named offensive Coordinator at Bucknell in 2019 and was later selected to the AFCA 35 Under 35 Coaches Leadership Institute in 2021. Prior to his time at Bucknell, he helped turn around the offense at Valparaiso and also had stops at Lehigh and Franklin and Marshall. Miran joined the podcast today to talk about his multiple offensive sets and how he works different RPO’s into his game plan. Show Notes: 1:08 Coach’s Journey 5:37 How coach developed his offensive philosophy 8:43 How Miran teaches and educates his players 12:18 Role of play action in his RPO offense 17:17 Quick naked/boot 21:29 How he fits WR screens in his offense 24:23 How he approaches his professional development 28:07 Winning Edge Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s podcast, Host Keith Grabowski is joined by Keith Riggs, Head Football Coach at Jenks High School in Oklahoma. Jenks is one of the most storied high school programs in the country and Riggs had the impossible job of replacing Allan Trimble, a High School coaching legend. Riggs is now fresh off a state title and talks to Grabowski about what difficulties he faced this year and about what it was like to replace a great coach. Show Notes: 2:38 Coach’s journey 4:49 Riggs approach to following up a legendary coach 6:30 The culture at Jenks 8:44 Riggs approach to the year 2020 and all it’s obstacles 11:27 Advice for Coach’s as they kick off their offseason under covid 13:15 Focus on what you can control 15:40 New things they tried during the pandemic that they will take with them after 18:42 How the circumstances of this year played into a full team effort on gameday 20:40 Dealing with players who were quarantined 22:22 Importance of football to his community 23:50 Winning Edge Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Special thanks to CoachTube and the Texas High School Coaches Association for sharing the audio for today’s Quickcast. It is taken from the CoachTube course “The Ragin Cajun formula for offensive success.” The link is in the shownotes. The Ragin Cajuns are currently 9-1 and in first place of Group A in the Sunbelt Conference and ranked #19 in the nation. Averaging 422 yards per game, 33.9 points per game on offense. Head Coach Billy Napier shares their offseason development plan for their offensive players. This certainly can be applied to both sides of the ball and special teams. As you consider how you might approach this next off season, Coach Napier’s common language, lesson plans, and ignition reels for players can be an interesting way to present information to your players. Common language for the Ragin Cajuns begins with how they label the defense. Coach Napier explains the significance of this as well as suggests that this is a session that you have with all your players and staff so that everyone is on the same page with how to communicate. It makes in game adjustment so much more effective Lesson plans are something we are all familiar with as teachers. Napier lays out exactly what they do in each lesson plan in order to improve the football IQ of his players. In this segment he shares how it is done with the quarterbacks. The visuals for this are in the THSCA course on CoachTube and the link is shared in shownotes and on coachandcoordinator.com Ignition reels are examples of players doing things at an elite level. Think about what you can do to create a library of your best former players, opponent all conference players, or players from the highest level performing at their position. This is a powerful tool in helping players see what it takes to excel on the field. The entire course Ragin Cajuns Formula for Offensive Success can be found on CoachTube. Link is in the shownotes in your description or at Coachandcoordinator.com It also includes details on every aspect of what goes into their game plan. As you consider how you present to your players and teach with pandemic restrictions still in place, Coach Napier’s plan which is paying dividends for the Ragin Cajuns could be the way to go. A perfect platform in which to present this is Just Play Solutions. Just play solutions allows you to create everything that Coach Napier talks about and present it in a way that is very visually for you players. It includes quizzing and check for understanding ability to keep player learning at the highest levels. Check out their platform at and mention you heard about it on Coach and Coordinator to save 10% on your new subscription. www.justplaysoultions.com Lauren’s First & Goal Clinic to benefit pediatric brain tumor research and cancer services. January 14-17. Over 160 FBS/FCS coaches. Mack Brown, Luke Fickell, Greg Schiano, Dan Quinn headline an incredible line-up of coaches from every position.Get “Ragin’ Cajuns Formula for Offensive Success” here: http://bit.ly/2K7SmEM Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s podcast, host Keith Grabowski is joined by Eastern Illinois Offensive Coordinator, John Kuceyeski. Prior to his time at Eastern Illinois, Kuceyeski coached for 3 years at Cornell where he was in charge of running backs and then the offensive line. Kuceyeski has had other stops at Iowa State, Toledo, Western Michigan and Penn State. Kuceyeski came on the podcast to talk about how he’s built the Eastern Illinois offense and tailored it in a unique way. Show notes 1:23 Coach’s journey 4:03 What Coach has learned so far from the coaches he’s worked with and under 10:25 Self and program evaluation 12:50 “Outwork Smartly” 20:30 Game Planning and evaluating situations over a 3-5 year span 24:10 Building an offense around an offensive line 28:55 How he “brands” his offense 31:43 How they make the offense unique to them 35:16 Importance of players understanding the play calls and why 37:38 Winning Edge Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast welcomes back Eric Kasperowicz, head coach at Pine-Richland High School in Western Pennsylvania. Kasperowicz is fresh off another state title, but this time in a year that was very different from previous ones. He joins host Keith Grabowski to talk about some difficulties his team faced this year as well as some defensive scheming. Show Notes: 1:17 Coach’s Championship Run 3:18 Difficulties they faced this year with Covid 5:28 More difficulties with the situation like not having a locker room 10:07 How to recover some of the aspects of the season that were lost 12:23 Dealing with the limitations this coming offseason 17:11 Effective strategies for watching film when you’re not with the kids 19:55 Role of accountability 21:22 Pre-snap stemming 27:57 How different alignments help mess with offenses 33:00 Countering offensive indicators 36:26 How they teach their base alignments and terminology 40:24 How Coach Tube has progressed the offseason plans for coaches Previous Podcasts: https://soundcloud.com/user-804678956/uptempo-defense-eric-kasperowicz-head-coach-of-pine-richland-high-school-gibsonia-pa https://soundcloud.com/user-804678956/tips-for-a-successful-summer-with-eric-kapserowicz-hc-pine-richland-hs-pa You can find all of Coach’s CoachTube courses here: Basics of the 4-3 Defense https://bit.ly/384kDnB Stopping the Pass in the 4-3 Defense https://bit.ly/3nmvMXu Stopping the Run in the 4-3 Defense https://bit.ly/3nidO8A 3x1 Adjustments https://bit.ly/3gLuR0r Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on the Coach and Coordinator podcast, host Keith Grabowski is joined by Lexington High School Head Coach, Kyle Cogan. Prior to serving as the HC at Lexington, Cogan was the defensive coordinator. Lexington has been on the forefront of defensive schemes since Cogan took over and he joined today to talk about his 1 High Zone Match Coverage. Show Notes: 1:51 What problems he was seeing that led him to his current system 4:48 Finding better answers and building on Zone Match 7:23 How Cogan put his own fingerprints on the scheme 9:08 Differences between Zone Match, Spot Drop and Man Match coverage 14:12 Advantages to playing Zone Match vs Man Match 16:06 The “dividers” in his scheme 21:38 Does Coach feel as if the teams in his conference are scheming vs his defense differently 24:16 Rules of the droppers 29:56 Teaching vs 2-back and how that hits together 32:30 How his defense plays vs some more traditional schemes and plays 35:06 What concepts has he seen offensively in 2020 that would cause him to readjust and adjusting to his new personnel 38:03 Concerns vs shallow screens like mesh 39:58 Wha he has found he needs to improve going forward 43:00 Drill ideas 44:06 Coach’s courses on Coach Tube Coach Tube Courses: https://coachtube.com/course/football/foundations-of-zone-match-1-high-coverage/13058034?ambassador=325306f59bb543b6883ff4baa https://coachtube.com/course/football/3-4-down-even-space-zone-1-high-run-fits/11312303?ambassador=325306f59bb543b6883ff4baa https://coachtube.com/course/football/zone-match-1-high-vs-spread/11821474?ambassador=325306f59bb543b6883ff4baa Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s podcast, host Keith Grabowski is joined by Tony Holler, creator of the Feed the Cats speed workout program. Holler has over 40 years of experience coaching football, basketball and track in the state of Illinois. Holler joined the podcast today to talk about some mistakes football coaches often make in their approach to getting players physically ready to play in football games and what he has found to be the best practices. Show Notes: 1:09 Coach’s Journey 4:54 Track-Football Consortium 7:34 14 point turnaround 11:30 Breaking traditions in football practices 15:50 How fatiguing guys during the week can hurt their performance on game-day 18:12 If teams don’t do traditional “toughness” practices, how do they make their players “tough” 21:00 How Christian McCaffrey’s track coach changed him by doing “5-second” work 23:33 How speed creates endurance 27:47 Letting games be the hardest thing you do every week 31:40 Coach’s Feed the Cats Certification on Coach Tube 34:12 Connect with Coach Coach Tube Course: https://coachtube.com/course/track-and-field/feed-the-cats-the-off-season-speed-workout/12361114 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When taking over Quincy University's under performing offense in 2019, Keith Barefield made two key decisions. First, he simplified progressions to what he called "either-or" decisions. Next, he made high tempo the default for the offense. In this Quickcast, Barefield, now an analyst for the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns, explains the steps they took to make Quincy the fastest tempo offense in NCAA Division 2 as well as breaking 14 school records and jumping into the top 25 offensive rankings. -Key decision on passing game progression -Why be uptempo? -How to make it measrusable -Results The Hawks were the #1 team in NCAA D2 in tempo, running a play every 18.9 seconds. In the process, the pace at which they played accomplished the following on offense: -Broke 14 School records -Points per game: +14.6 points per game over 2018, #30 nationally, a 121 spot jump nationally -Passing yards +152 ypg over 2018, 9th nationally, +132 spot jump -Total yards 445ypg, +128 ypg 23rd nationally, +100 spot jump Get his course, "Turnaround an Offense with Tempo" on CoachTube: https://coachtube.com/course/football/turnaround-an-offense-with-tempo-keith-barefield/11947179?ambassador=325306f59bb543b6883ff4baa Get our free digital magazine: coachandcoordinator.com/magazine Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s podcast, Host Keith Grabowski is joined by Jeremy Hawkins, the defensive line coach at Eastern Kentucky University. Prior to taking his current position at EKU, Hawkins coached at Mercer, LSU and UAB. He joins Grabowski today to talk about his journey through coaching and about defensive line play. Show Notes: 1:13 Hawkins coaching journey 14:50 How coaching a position he wasn’t familiar with helped him grow 19:07 Hawkins experience working with Coach Orgeron 24:18 How what he learned from Coach O is helping him in recruiting 27:52 Maintaining relationships with the players once you successfully recruited them and have them on campus 33:00 Importance of having “Good-Eyes” as a defensive lineman 39:36 Coaching points for outside zone and his basic d-line techniques 48:01 Winning Edge 51:17 Coach’s Recruiting areas Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Joining host Keith Grabowski on today’s podcast is Chicago Bears Running back Coach David Walker. Having been a prolific college running back at Syracuse, Walker went back to his roots for his first college coaching career where he served as the Orange RB coach from 1995-03. After his time at Syracuse, he went on to Pittsburgh where he coached from 2004-10. Walker then coached the running backs for the Indianapolis Colts from 2011-14 and from 2016-18. Walker is considered one of the premiere runningback coaches in football. He joins the podcast today to talk about Coaching RB reads. Show Notes: 1:23 How Walker determined he wanted to Coach 3:15 What Walker believes makes a successful coach 5:43 Walkers platform for helping coaches grow 9:21 Developing the every down back 11:15 Owing the offensive line as a runningback 14:02 The responsibility of the coach to teach an elite runningback 16:34 What Walker teaches in his gap scheme 25:23 Outside zone 29:30 Walker's role in developing the game plan 35:36 Winning Edge 36:53 Connecting with Coach Walker’s CoachTube Course: https://coachtube.com/course/football/developing-the-complete-running-back/13031370 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices