

Coach and Coordinator Podcast
Keith Grabowski
Keith Grabowski interviews the most knowledgeable head coaches, coordinators, and position coaches from professional, college, and high school football. Keith and his guests discuss the philosophy, concepts, schemes, and strategies that they have learned throughout their careers. Each show includes a specific idea that can be applied to help coaches at every level find the winning edge.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Nov 6, 2020 • 14min
Six Keys For Red Zone Success - John Pennington, Head Coach, West Virginia State
Today's episode is from our Quickcast series, a short podcast on a single topic. Today we focus on success in the red zone with John Pennington.
John Pennington enters his fourth year as the Head Coach at West Virginia State University in 2020.
Pennington was named head coach in the Spring of 2017 and promptly proceeded to lead the program to its first winning season in a decade.
In his first season as head coach, the Yellow Jackets hit statistical milestones that were unheard of prior to his arrival. They earned a No. 1 ranking in all of NCAA Division II in red zone offense by scoring 47 times out of 48 attempts. Additionally, his team ranked first in the Mountain East Conference (MEC) in completion percentage, third down conversions, and passing yards per game. They placed second in the MEC in total offense, first downs, and scoring per game.
6 Keys:
1. Everyone understands the plan
2. Goal 5 points avg. per Red Zone attempt
3. Game plan menu
4. Practice Plan
5. Visualize the calls
6. Go with your gut
Check out the first clinic of the offseason:
ihsfca.coachesclinic.com
Twitter: @CoachKGrabowski
John Pennington RPO Course
https://coachtube.com/course/football/john-pennington-rpo-offense/11751906?ambassador=325306f59bb543b6883ff4baa Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Nov 5, 2020 • 13min
Creating Big Plays And Turnovers On Defense - Chris Kappas, Defensive Coordinator, Austin Peay
Chris Kappas is the new defensive coordinator at Austin Peay. He spent eight years in two stints on the Mount Union coaching staff, five as defensive coordinator.
In the five years as a defensive coordinator, his unit hwas in the top 10 in at least three national defensive categories in each season.
In 2015, Kappas earned National Coordinator of the Year honors as his defense topped all of college football allowing 197.6 yards per game. Mount Union also led the nation that year in third down defense (21.4-percent), rushing defense (55.2 yds/game), scoring defense (9.3 ppg), sacks (4.53 per game) helping leading the team to its 12th national championship.
He spent two years as the Raiders offensive coordinator and led a group that was among nation's top scoring teams.
On this Coach and Coordinator Quickcast, Kappas discusses creating big plays and turnovers on defense.
-Defensive philosophy
-Creating an emphasis on turnovers
-Strip tackle technique and practice
-Game planning and looking for opportunities for big plays
Check out all of our episodes on coachandcoordinator.com
Don't miss the first big clinic of the off season December 8-12
Register and check-out the line-up at ihsfca.coachesclinic.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Nov 4, 2020 • 52min
Spread and Shred- Craig Stutzmann, Offensive Coordinator, Washington State
On today’s podcast, host Keith Grabowski continues our “Training Camp” series with Craig Stutzmann, offensive coordinator at Washington State. Coach Stutzmann was formerly the passing game coordinator at Hawaii and helped lead the Rainbow Warriors to 310.3 pass yards per game in 2018, good enough for ninth in the nation. During his time at Emory & Henry College (Va.) as offensive coordinator, his offense was dubbed “Spread-and-Shred” for their unique style of play. Stutzmann joins the podcast today to talk about his offense as well as how he implements it in the QB room during camp.
Show Notes:
2:44 Coach’s journey
7:18 Transition from high school to GA to assistant
12:58 How different systems shaped his Run and Shoot offense
15:40 Evolution of the passing game both offensively and defensively
18:58 First QB meeting during camp
25:15 Communicating with players during camp both for positives and negatives
29:36 Developing fundamentals early in camp and during the season
37:35 Teaching decision making in the classroom
42:49 Evaluation process
47:55 Winning edge
Connect with Coach: @CoachStutzman
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Link For Illinois Clinic:
ihsfca.coachesclinic.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Nov 3, 2020 • 30min
Doing the Job of Offensive Coordinator - Rob Likens, OC Arizona State
Arizona State Offensive Coordinator Rob Likens joins Keith Grabowski to discuss the job of an offensive coordinator. Grabowski and Likens discuss highlights of his 3 hour presentation at Tony Franklin's OC Magic. Recorded at OC Magic in San Marcos, TX 5/11/19.
Show Notes:
00:00 - Intro
00:32 - What the game means to you
03:11 - Benefits of the event
04:59 - Communication
07:18 - Working and communicating with assistant coaches (Breaking walls)
09:27 - Communicating with your quarterback
10:59 - Setting expectations
12:28 - Simplicity under pressure
14:27 - Championship effort
15:24 - Human element
17:10 - Simplistic advantageous system
18:44 - Analytics (Attack 3rd Down)
20:18 - Putting together a game-plan (Information sheets)
21:44 - Game week
25:21 - Winning Edge
26:28 - Goodbyes/Outro
Link For Illinois Clinic:
https://ihsfca.coachesclinic.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Nov 2, 2020 • 16min
Quickcast: Coaching Style- Ed Orgeron, HC, LSU
Today’s episode is presented by CoachTube with special thanks to Texas High School Coaches Association. From our Quickcast Series, our guest is Ed Orgeron, Head Coach, LSU sharing his insight on coaching style.
What is a Quickcast?
You already know the Coach and Coordinator Podcast for interviews that touch the many areas of the skillset and mindset that makes a successful coach.
In our Quickcast we focus on a coach’s most powerful insight on a single topic. We pull out the most useful, interesting and helpful ideas into an episode you can consume in 15 minutes or less. It’s our uptempo version of the podcast.
With a library of over 1,000 episodes, we have plenty of these nuggets to share with you to help improve your own mindset and skill set as a coach. Enjoy!
Shownotes:
How did Ed Orgeron make the move to being the head coach of the LSU Tigers having never been a coordinator? He takes about exactly that today and shares his insight on what it takes to be a head coach.
1:30 Coaching style - be yourself
2:57 Having a positive attitude towards work
3:30 Become an expert at your position
4:17 Treatment of your players
7:17 Be highly organized as a coach
8:05 Have a teaching progression
8:29 Organizing drills
13:04 Importance of having a drill list
Get this entire presentation from Coach Orgeron on CoachTube.
https://bit.ly/2TKPe30
Our new home for the podcast:
coachandcoordinator.com
Twitter: @CoachKGrabowski Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Oct 30, 2020 • 44min
Building Culture and Coaching the Tight End - Nick Sheridan, Offensive Coordinator, Indiana
From the Archives On today’s podcast, host Keith Grabowski welcomes Nick Sheridan, tight ends coach at Indiana University, to the latest episode of our “Training Camp” series. Coach Sheridan also coached the Hoosier quarterbacks in 2017 and 2018. In 2017, Sheridan was named one of the nations Top 30 coaches under 30 years of age by 247Sports.com. Prior to Indiana, Sheridan worked as an offensive grad assistant at the University of Tennessee from 2014-16. Sheridan joins the podcast today to talk about how he advances the play of the tight end position throughout training camp. Show Notes: 1:47 Coach’s journey 3:35 How Coach’s exposure to different coaches growing up and playing shaped him 5:40 Learning in two different systems 8:57 Different aspects of coaching tight ends 11:32 Installation 16:28 Positional walk throughs 19:02 Pillars of his TE group 22:27 Highlighting the positives during camp 25:12 Individual period time distribution 30:40 Using as many different players as possible 34:05 Evaluation process 39:53 Winning edge Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Oct 29, 2020 • 53min
Press Man Coverage - Ron Case, Retired Defensive Coordinator, LSU
From the Archives:
This week in the Game Plan series, Keith Grabowski and co-host Charlie Coiner talk with coach Ron Case about press-man coverage. Coach Case emphasizes using man coverage to get off the field on 3rd down and how it can help stop the Run Pass Option (RPO). Coach Case breaks down how he learned and taught the technique and what made it successful. He closes out telling the hosts what got him into coaching football.
Show Notes:
01:30 Ron Case bio
03:20 Coach Case’s start with press man
05:00 Robert Davis at Vanderbilt
06:15 Learning from players
07:00 Teaching press man at LSU
09:30 Moving it to North Carolina
10:20 Difference in technique
12:10 Being on the same page
12:30 Defending in different eras
14:00 Matchups and playing off
15:40 Keeping the technique refined
16:25 Difficulty coaching up different coverage
17:20 Recruit the skill and coach it up
19:30 How good are you up front?
21:05 Press man on 3rd down to get off the field
21:40 Coach Case’s technique breakdown
23:05 Stab technique cover 1 or 0
24:25 Disrupt the timing
25:30 Working the hips
26:40 Off the ball coach patience
28:30 Finding the ball
31:22 Coaching technique in 1-on-1
33:40 Man defending RPO
35:05 Western Alamance High School
36:30 How Coach Case got into football
38:30 Playing in the Marine Corp
39:40 Coaching in the Marine Corp
41:35 Carson Newman College
45:30 Giving the defensive line credit
47:40 Football changing Coach Case’s life
48:30 How Case learned it
49:00 Keith’s similar learning experience
50:10 Coach Case’s military mixing with football Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Oct 28, 2020 • 42min
Defending Option and RPO, and Lauren's First and Goal with John Loose, LB Coach, Army
From the Archives:
Today’s guest on the Coordinator podcast is John Loose, safeties coach at Army. Loose has been coaching for 31 years and is in his 13th season at Army. Last season, Loose helped guide the Army secondary to finish 14th in the nation against the pass. Coach Loose, with the help of his wife, started the Lauren’s First and Goal Foundation, which provides financial support for brain tumor research and cancer services. Lauren’s First and Goal has raised more than $2 million toward its mission and holds a one-day football camp with over 1,500 participants and over 300 college coaches from around the country.
Show Notes
1:34 Loose’s coaching background
2:45 Lessons Loose has learned throughout his career
8:02 Building relationships with players
10:51 Defending the option
13:41 Adjustments made in practice to stop the pass
15:10 What coach is looking for in a player
18:28 Defending the RPO
22:06 Loose’s favorite RPO from the offensive perspective
25:03 Lauren’s First and Goal Foundation
33:28 Making a difference through Lauren’s First and Goal Foundation
John Loose - Tackling and Defensive Fundamentals course on CoachTube
https://bit.ly/3jCjO9i
Lauren’s First and Goal Foundation: www.laurensfirstandgoal.org/
Lauren’s First and Goal Foundation Twitter: @LFGFootballCamp
Lauren’s First and Goal Highlights: www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4UuQ6hBR…&feature=youtu.be Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Oct 27, 2020 • 37min
Coaching Running Backs - Tim Horton, RB Coach Vanderbilt
One of the sport’s most widely respected running backs coaches, Tim Horton, sits down with Keith in this week’s episode of the Coach and Coordinator podcast. Horton, who currently serves as running backs coach at Auburn, has coached a host of future NFL players, including Darren McFadden, Felix Jones, Peyton Hillis and Knile Davis. He gives Keith the inside scoop on what he focuses on when instructing running backs, why so many talented running backs are deficient in pass protection and why coaches need to take their time in evaluating players.
SHOW NOTES
1:09 Coaching in his blood
2:16 Lessons learned as a young coach
3:46 Building relationships with players
5:51 Keys to coaching the running back position
7:46 How Horton makes the most of his individual sessions with running backs
11:16 Coaching points for winning the block in pass protection
13:28 Approach to coaching running backs in the classroom setting and the value of active learning
15:06 Making the grind fun for players
16:50 Favorite run play
18:05 Teaching points for RBs in Power play
21:32 Why good outfielders make good punt returners
23:47 Key traits Horton looks for on recruiting trail
26:05 Why coaches should not pass judgment too quickly on players
27:15 Best coaching advice received
27:51 Book recommendation
29:59 Learning RPO
31:01 Favorite piece of coaching technology
33:06 Concerns for future of the game
34:39 Advice to a young coach
36:10 Two-minute drill
37:55 The winning edge Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Oct 26, 2020 • 14min
Quickcast: The Power Of Simplicity - Jason Mangone, Head Coach/OC, SUNY Brockport
What is a Quickcast?
You already know the Coach and Coordinator Podcast for interviews that touch the many areas of the skillset and mindset that makes a successful coach.
In our quickcast we focus on a coach’s most powerful insight on a single topic. We pull out the most useful, interesting and helpful ideas into an episode you can consume in 15 minutes or less. It’s our uptempo version of the podcast.
With a library of over 1,000 episodes, we have plenty of these nuggets to share with you to help improve your own mindset and skill set as a coach. Enjoy!
Jason Mangone Head Coach of D3 Suny Brockport. He was named the 2017 AFCA D-III Coach of the Year after guiding the Golden Eagles to a 13-1 record, the best in school history, and a berth in the national semifinals. The Golden Eagles are consistently at the top of D3 offensive rankings. Today Mangone shares his insight on Simplicity.
Simplicity - Having less is more powerful over time and allows you to coach better and your players to execute more effectively. Coach Mangone shares how selecting an offensive menu is much like managing what’s in your closet.
An enemy of simplicity is overage…having calls in the game plan that you never actually use. Coach Mangone explains the importance of maximizing your repetitions in practice by simplifying your game plan. The result is player confidence.
Mangone shares his approach to adding wrinkles and how to keep it the same for the guys upfront. He discusses his rule on when final additions can be made into the game plan so that they can have everything ready for game day.
We all get intrigued by the success of others offense, The reality of putting new plays into the offense and actually getting the play the confidence that you need as the play caller can be at odds. Coach Mangone explains the danger in doing this and how it affects practice.
How new plays affect the practice plan and a way to add wrinkles into what you already do rather than re-creating the wheel.
Simplicity allows you to better find the answers and adjustments you need to be able to stay ahead of the defense. Mangone points out that it’s the difference of being a guy who calls plays and coordinator.
Thanks to Coach Mangone for sharing his thoughts on why keeping it simple can help your offense have success and for you to be most effective as an offensive coordinator.
Check out our show notes for links to resources that will help you develop as a coach and coordinator at coachandcoordinator.com and follow me on twitter @CoachKGrabowski Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices


