Coach and Coordinator Podcast

Today's quickcast is a segment from the Texas High School Coaches Association Convention. In this segment head coach of the University of Texas Steve Sarkisian talks about mental toughness - bing "Texas Tough" and why he wants player in his program who are investing not sacrificing. These are some impactful reminders for ourselves and something we can share with our players as we progress through the season, The entire talk is available on CoachTube: https://bit.ly/3yRNjfe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We are fortunate to have long time offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone join us weekly this season to discuss games from the week and what we can learn from them. The week we get Coach Mazzone’s insight on : Offenses blending tempo -How to do it -Leverage or numbers -Minnesota use of personnel and formation -Adjusting splits on RPO -Manipulating leverage of secondary with alignment -Using clock and going slow then hitting with one word call -Putting more thought into using tempo -Creating “counters” to your tempo -2 and 3 man route combinations instead of 4-5 out -Keeping protection simple and protection in compressed formatiopn -Mike Leach and repetitions to create understanding and “answers to the test” -Handling drop 8 -A change from NFL trickle down to influence of college ball up to NFL -“12 Mighty Orphans” - equaling the field with tempo -How offenses have benefited from access to information -Nothing comes back the same Join us every week throughout the season for more with Coach Mazzone. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bill Walsh was one of the best ever in handling the “What Ifs” before they happened. Rather than reacting on the fly, Walsh and his staff had the answers planned and prepared for when something might cause them to have to adjust. With the last 18 months of a pandemic forcing us into plenty of what-if scenarios, coaches certainly have an understanding of how to approach contingency planning. That certainly does extend onto the field, and having those plans in place as well. On this episode we discuss contingency plans for: -Replacing an injured QB -Building packages for contingencies -Defensive personnel adjustment -Playing against the wildcat package -Getting the next punter, kicker, snapper, holder meaningful work -Special teams rare situations -Planning for contingencies as a staff Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Simple in-season analytics can identify your strengths and weaknesses. This is something that we started doing and proved to help us develop better game plans and practice plans and it can be done on offense, defense, and special teams. You can get as granular as you want, but even understanding some bigger picture numbers can shed light on areas of success and needs for improvement. We discuss a few examples and how to accomplish this on offense defense and special teams. -Inputting data -Use in game -Defining efficiency and explosiveness -Ideas for offense, defense, and special teams -How to get it done -Developing your "analytics" department in your school Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How Do We Win - Matt Campbell, Head Coach, Iowa State In this segment from the Iowa Football Coaches Association, Head Coach at Iowa State Matt Campbell shares the three things that allows the Cyclones to win. ISU does not beat ISU Complimentary football Find our courage He explains how these three things which they identified allow them to win football games. Secondly, he talks about how their values drive their culture. The entire talk is available on CoachTube here: https://bit.ly/2Vdlnoi Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Being able to put together an effective game plan starts with a sound understanding of how you think about field zones and down and distance as well as how you define and give purpose to the concepts you use. That is something that Oregon offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead does well. In this quickcast he breaks down the different areas of the red zone, gives a clear definition of what an RPO is to them, and talks about Occam's Razor theory and simplicity. What he shares today can help you game plan better throughout the season. His entire clinic talk which provides a library of RPO concepts in the red zone is available on CoachTube and is chaptered to get you right to the areas of the field and ideas you want to look at. It provides a great resource in and out of season. Get it here: https://bit.ly/2WIjUXu Save 50% with the code: CCPMoorhead Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this weekly in-season series, host Keith Grabowski and co-host Noel Mazzone will discuss games from the previous week and coaching methods, drills and strategies to help every team improve. This week they discuss: -the stretch play -jet motion -the duo play -nakeds -using meaningful motions and shifts to create numbers or leverage -how to install motion in uptempo offense -inside zone -naming and using motion in uptempo -using walk-thru, team takeoff and practice -building your game plan into individual drills -practice method: part-whole-part -scripting practice like it's a game -practice calling plays -get rz and 3rd calls in in every practice -calling plays off the call sheet all week -player input -how much on the call sheet/building the call sheet NZone on CoachTube: https://coachtube.com/users/noelmazzone Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The focus is this week for our adjustments is define and refine. After another weekend of football, I have identified some adjustments every team can make to fine tune execution. Offense Let’s start with the offensive side of the ball. After watching a Friday night high school game, one team in particular struggled to get their passing game going and two issues became very clear. First they did not have an outlet for the quarterback. We will get into tendencies in a couple weeks, but the main issue is this team only looked to pass on 2nd and long or third down. The defense did a nice job with their coverage and the quarterback was left without an option and ended up forcing the ball into coverage often. The first thing I suggest if this is an issue is to install an operating system for your quarterback. Ideally this would have been done already, but it gives your quarterback and the coach the ability to see things and communicate as to where the ball should be going. Secondly, the routes should have some kind of outlet or check down. Many times the offense was in a seven man protection and it wasn’t necessary because the defense was bringing five. The QB had deep routes and nothing else as an option. Check down can be built into every route. A solution to these issues is implementing something like Dan Gonzalez’s “A.C.T.S” operating system. The third issue was the quarterback in this situation had no escape plan. He started running toward the sideline and condensing the field. If you look at any protection, there is a natural gap for the quarterback to escape, and being able to move up in the pocket is critical. This should be worked weekly to engrain in the quarterback how he should leave the pocket. Of course there will be reactions as he does that, but it gives him a place to start as to where and when to get out of the pocket. In the run game, and area that stuck out was with the jet or fly sweep. A wealth of knowledge on what makes the play go from under center or gun, Speckman developed a “Stoplight” system for the run that allows it to be successful in various situations. Most offensive coordinators will go away from the sweep if it gets stopped, but Speckman’s “stoplight system” allows him to keep calling the play. Speckman illustrates all of his key coaching points as well as analyzing the red, yellow, and green light sweeps in his clinic “Six Keys to Beating the Defense with Fly Sweep.” Defense On the defensive side of the ball, I saw another team who seemed to have a more defined escape plan for their quarterback, and throughout the game he was able to leave the pocket and gain big yards and move the chains. One answer is to have a good contain rush and utilize a “rat” or a “spy” on the quarterback. If you're breaking down and seeing a quarterback running for big yards on drop back plays, you may want to implement this strategy into your game plan. Special Teams On special teams, I saw a couple opportunities for one team who was able to get a rush on the punter and get close but just miss a block twice with the defender running through with both hands extended for the ball. Brian Mason, special teams coordinator at Cincinnati likes teaching players to get long with one hand. The principle that one hand is longer than two applies here. This technique is something that Coach Mason drills the Bearcats in their “block party” drill. Early season look for those opportunities within all of your schemes and techniques to better define things for your players in order to refine your execution. This is where you can begin to make some big gains by making small changes. These will pay off as the season progresses. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One of the most important things you can do as a position coach after the game is to grade the film. It gives you tangible, quantifiable information on what your players did and what they need to work on. It also reflects on you as well. As the saying goes, “you are either coaching it or allowing it to happen.” This can be done in multiple ways from percentage grades to detailed explanations on each play of what is right or wrong. The single most important aspect of grading film is that when the process is finished each player has a clear idea of what they are doing well and what they need to work on, and you as a coach should be able to turn that into something actionable in the practice plan. Furthermore, that should extend into game planning. As a position coach being able to tell the coordinator, “We are doing this really well” or “We really need to focus on this in order to see it work on gameday” is important information when putting together the plays you will use against the next opponent. Ideally film grading is done every single day of practice, not just on game days. In this episode I will share how we accomplished this while working with limited time to get it done. Player understanding and improved performance is the goal of film grading. The improved performance is a product of them clearly seeing what they need to work on, and you as the coach implementing practice drills and teaching that gets them to the level of performance to succeed on game day. Episode - Ideas for Better Coaching Cues https://soundcloud.com/user-804678956/ideas-for-better-coaching-cues Episode - A Common Language for Coaching - Brent Dearmon, OC MTSU https://soundcloud.com/user-804678956/creating-a-common-language-for-coaching-brent-dearmon-oc-mtsu Game Planning Master Class: https://bit.ly/2WxtRXZ Save 50% with the code CCPGamePlan Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's episode, Keith shares a segment from a clinic which he moderated for the Louisiana Football Coaches Association. In this segment, Sean Payton, head coach fo the New Orleans Saints shares something which he calls "forecasting." He tells a story which Bill Parcells shared with him and then an example of himself putting "forecasting" into practice when he was an assistant for Parcells. As we head into a game week, how we communicate with our players becomes critically important when the game is on the line and there are some good takeaways from this quick episode. The entire talk is available on CoachTube: https://bit.ly/2WnrNRS Enter the code CCPSaints to save 50% All the talks from the LFCA Clinic including Nick Saban, Eric Bienemy, Jake Peetz, Daronte Jones and more are available here: https://bit.ly/3vfVNep Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices