The Football Coaching Podcast with Joe Daniel

For every playbook out there, you will find another way to name offensive football formations. There are no strict guidelines or rulebook to what you call your formations. Creating your own system of rules for how you name offensive football formations is important, though. It will determine how easy it is for your players to grasp new formations. The system also determines how easy it is for you call new formations. I love keeping it simple. Football plays take a lot of work. They take time to install and perfect. You do not need a lot of plays. Formations are cheap. You can install new formations quickly in practice. Being able to run just a few plays out of many different formations creates a complex look for the defense, while you keep it simple. Check out this episode of The Football Coaching Podcast to learn all about naming and grouping your offensive football formations.

Unlike the rest of the topics in Season 9 of The Football Coaching Podcast, this is not one of the 20 most asked questions. In fact, this question gets asked very infrequently. But it is important. When do I know it is time to walk away from coaching? You feel like you need a break. The stress of the job is wearing you out. Changes in your life have made the huge time commitment a bigger burden than it was. You don't get the same joy from the game as you did before. There are a lot of reason coaches ask the question. In this episode, I will talk about how I knew it was time to walk away. And how I knew it was time to come back.

Two platoon football has been a divisive concept in high school football over the last decade or more. Do you specialize players on one side of the ball, or keep the best players on the field at all times? There's a lot to the issue. And while there is not as much argument about two platoon football anymore, there is still a lot to consider. My feelings on two platoon football are not a secret, either. But I see the advantages. And disadvantages. That's what this episode of The Football Coaching Podcast is all about.

What is the best football defense for my team to run? I hear that question a lot. But there's no easy answer. In Season 9 of The Football Coaching Podcast we're answering the most common questions I've heard over the last decade. And this question about the best football defense is one of the most popular. Check out this episode for a look into some of the biggest myths and misunderstandings about defensive football. After listening, you'll be ready to push ahead coaching your defense with confidence.

Coaches are always trying to find ways to spice up practice, like running fun football drills. Little things that make practice more like a game. Wait a minute. We have to come up with cute ways to make football practice seem like a game? There's a problem here. This episode of The Football Coaching Podcast looks at how to cure boring football practices. Fun football drills to spice things up, why that is insane, and how to make your players enjoy practice time so they come back for more. It's all in this episode of The Football Coaching Podcast!

The failures of your football scout team are the bane of every coach's existence. You're trying to prepare your starters to play a top opponent. That scout team is ruining everything, though. Football scout teams don't have to equal misery. But you have to put them in a position to succeed. We have a plan for that, and I'm going to share it with you in this episode.

Winning in all three phases might be a cliche, but you will lose games if you have sloppy special teams practice. Planning your special teams practices is critical if you don't want to shoot yourself in the foot on game day. How do we plan special teams practice when we only have a 90 minute practice plan? It seems like there is too much to get done. But that's not true. This episode of The Football Coaching Podcast dives into planning your special teams practices - and your special teams playbooks - with a Coach Simple approach.

You don't want too many plays in your offensive playbook. But you need enough plays to beat the defense. So how many plays do you need to have ready? How many plays you need in the playbook is the 15th episode in our 20 Questions series for Season 9 of The Football Coaching Podcast. It is one of the 20 most-asked questions I have seen from our podcast listeners and JDFB Coaching Systems clients. Every offensive playbook is different. And every coach is different. But this episode will give you a solid guide for how many plays to have in your offensive playbook.

Linebacker reads and keys are the single most searched for keyword on Joe Daniel Football. It seems every coach is looking for the perfect reads for your linebackers. I have coached just about every type of linebacker reads imaginable. Keying guards, keying backfield. I have cross-keyed the backs, keyed the 2-man surface… you name it, I have tried to coach it. Skip all the hassle. Get the complete guide to Linebacker Reads in this episode of The Football Coaching Podcast.

I hear from coaches all the time who have their own ideas on how a football team should be run. They just cannot get the head coach to listen! This is a touchy subject. After all, the head coach is the man in charge. This is his time to shine. Not only that, he probably has more experience than other coaches on staff (though not always). This episode dives into how to get your head coach to open up to your suggestions… and when to keep your mouth shut.