The Football Coaching Podcast with Joe Daniel

Your Pre-camp practice schedule is, as it should be, its own beast. Getting your players ready for the first camp, and laying the foundation for the rest of your season is possibly one of the most important things you'll plan and execute until your first Friday night snap. On this episode Coaches Dave Dugan and Rick Stewart join Joe and Daniel to discuss pre-camp practice planning. Listen to identify how these coaches use the time leading up to the first camp with installs, drills, packages, and basic football information.

The Dunning-Kruger Effect is a scientific phenomenon in which people who are relatively new to a field, such as coaching football, often think they have all the answers when they actually have little to no knowledge of the subject at all. This effect is seen in nearly all aspects of life, even growing from a child into an adult (think about a 4 year old who has ALL the answers and a teenager who is frozen from fear of getting into the real world). It stems from the fact that you generally don't know what you don't know, and a false confidence in your ability to control what you do know. All of this can lead you to believe that you're the smartest man in the room. On this episode, Joe and Daniel discuss the challenges of believing you're the new greatest thing in football, what to do if you find yourself actually being the best coach on staff as an assistant, and the unfortunate situation in which you're a Head Coach with a subpar staff.

Linebackers could be considered the most important players in your defensive scheme. Regardless of how you rate them in importance, they can definitely make or break your defense if you aren't playing the right kids in each position. On this episode Joe and Daniel discuss what the ideal backer looks like, what the player you'll likely be playing there looks like, and what type of player to fit into the inside backer positions in the scheme you've chosen.

Picking a defense doesn't have to be a very difficult task, but it is one that can easily be overthought. Some guys get stuck looking for the "perfect" defense, when that simply doesn't exist. In this episode, Joe and Daniel discuss the varying levels of difficulty and complexity in running each of the most prominent defensive schemes and what factors you should consider when picking one to run.

As coaches, we're constantly performing a balancing act; run plays vs pass, playing time for our players, time at the office on the weekend… the list goes on ad nauseum. Only one small part of that list is the number of touches our players are getting. On this episode Joe and Daniel are joined by coaches Kenny Simpson and Max Wilson to discuss the pros and cons of spreading the rock around in your offensive scheme to maximize experience, minimize wear and tear, and have your team ready for the high pressure moments on Friday nights.

Our teams are composed of athletes of a large range of experience levels. In football especially, players pick up skills and abilities throughout their career that usually result in them being more experienced and seeing the game differently than younger players. This leads to complications during practice when it comes to running drills that have to benefit everyone on the team. On this episode we talk with Coach Justin Dottavio about the importance of differentiating drills and how to add to and take away from your drills to ensure every player is getting max benefit from them.

You cannot expect, through any amount of drills or training, for an incoming freshman to show up and be the stud on the team. Realistically, you probably can't even expect them to be game ready with a single fall camp under their belt. However, you can and should have a plan to make them serviceable as a player. On this episode Joe and Daniel are joined by Lynn Shackleford and Antoine Smith as we discuss developing your team, and building them physically and mentally.

"I run six plays, split veer. It's like novocaine. Just give it time, it always works." - Herman Boone Although Coach Boone had T. C. Williams rocking and rolling to a 13-0 season and a state title in 1971 with the Split Veer… Most of us can agree that you likely need more than 6 plays in today's football game. Not that the split veer, wishbone, or other offenses won't work. But, you can at another level to these schemes with a simple RPO or or mixing in a little pass game to keep defenders honest. On this episode Joe and Daniel discuss how many of each play type you should carry in a playbook vs a system, how to decide how much to install each year, and the benefits of keeping things simple.

"I run six plays, split veer. It's like novocaine. Just give it time, it always works." - Herman Boone Although Coach Boone had T. C. Williams rocking and rolling to a 13-0 season and a state title in 1971 with the Split Veer… Most of us can agree that you likely need more than 6 plays in today's football game. Not that the split veer, wishbone, or other offenses won't work. But, you can at another level to these schemes with a simple RPO or or mixing in a little pass game to keep defenders honest. On this episode Joe and Daniel discuss how many of each play type you should carry in a playbook vs a system, how to decide how much to install each year, and the benefits of keeping things simple.

As the school year winds down, and football season gets ever nearer, you may find yourself as the newest defensive play caller on your team. Or, maybe you're a new DC on a different team than last year. Regardless, if you're in a position to determine which defensive coverage your team will use, you've come to the right place. Defense doesn't have to be complicated, and it often starts with keeping your coverage package(s) simple. In this episode Joe and Daniel discuss why you need to stick to a base coverage, which coverage you should likely be using, and whether zone or man coverage is right for you.