The Football Coaching Podcast with Joe Daniel

Coach Flawless Linebacker Blitz Technique to Get All the Reward of Aggressive Play Calling, with Less Risk. Too many coaches use blitzes as a way to just ‘make something happen.’ That something could mean either your band, or their band, is going to play. And the outcome might be 50-50 at best. Defensive Coordinators can minimize risk in two ways. One is obvious. Study the other team, and call your blitzes with intent and purpose to stop specific actions by the offense. The other way to minimize risk, is coaching linebacker blitz technique. Coaching techniques that are going to give your blitzing linebacker the chance to make a play. In this episode of The Football Coaching Podcast, we’re going to look at 7 keys to Coaching Linebacker Blitz Technique. Each individual phase of the blitz game is an opportunity to improve your defense.  

In the 2000’s, the West Virginia 3-3 Defense was one of several Odd Stack fronts turning heads across the nation. Along with Georgia Military College’s 3-5-3 Defense, these two variations became the most popular for High School Football teams to emulate. In this episode of The Football Coaching Podcast, I’m breaking down the West Virginia 3-3 Defense playbook from 2002. We’ll look at the philosophy behind the defense, base fronts, alignment, adjustments, blitzes and coverages in this 192 page playbook (download available at the top of this page). Looking for more ideas to expand your Odd Stack defense or add the front in as a change-up? The breakdown of the West Virginia 3-3 Defense in this episode, along with my previous episode on Coaching the 33 Stack Defense, will get you going.

 I started running the 33 Stack Defense in 2006. At the time, it was just gaining in popularity. Many coaches criticized the defense because “you can’t stop the run.” But the defense gained a foothold. Coaches liked the aggressiveness and the idea of a defense built for smaller players. More speed on the field. Unfortunately, a lot of myths sprung up around the defense in that era, too. High School Football coaches have done a better job learning the intricacies and executing the defense in recent years. In this episode of The Football Coaching Podcast, I’ll talk about the basics of the 33 Stack Defense. We’ll also look at those myths and how you can use the 33 Stack Defense for your football team today.

Your football team will have more success, and you will be a happier coach, when you give an identity to your offensive play calling. Everyone has that team on the schedule. You know exactly what they are going to do on offense. You just can’t stop it. It’s a great situation to be in. One that seems so simple and obvious. But so many High School football coaches are putting way too much time into coming up with the next great thing. Instead, work to establish your offensive play calling identity. Listen to this podcast, and download the document above, to get the steps to establishing your own offensive play calling identity.

  Hopefully I won’t forget these Football Coaching Lessons again before next season... For the final Football Coaching Podcast of 2017, I wanted to talk about the football coaching lessons I learned this year. I sat down and started hammering out a list. It’s a good list. Learned a lot this year. Unfortunately, several of the things on this list are football coaching lessons I have learned many times before. And just seem to forget them. So for you, and for me, this year’s list is not only on The Football Coaching Podcast, but you can also download my 10 Football Coaching Lessons Learned in the box above. I’ll be pinning it up on the wall somewhere, and hopefully looking at it. Before I make the same mistakes again.

Do you need your 4-2-5 Defense to dominate? Take a deeper look at one that has already done it. We’re going deep into the pages of the 1999 TCU 4-2-5 Defense Playbook. This playbook was used when Gary Patterson was still the Defensive Coordinator for the Horned Frogs. It’s a great playbook to look at for any football coach. But 4-2-5 Defense coaches should be intimately familiar with it. I’ll point out what you should take from it, and what you should probably leave alone. And a few things that I’d like to steal, but haven’t done it yet!

Your defense must be ready to stop any RPO the offense can run at you. Getting your defense ready to defend Run-Pass Options isn’t as hard as other coaches will make it sound. At least, the X’s and O’s side of things isn’t so hard. In this episode of The Football Coaching Podcast, I’ll give you a plan for shutting down RPO’s with your 4-2-5 Defense. Just by running your base scheme. Plus, I’m going to share the 5 Keys to Defending RPO’s that every defense must follow. If you can take care of these pieces, your defense will be ready to shut down any RPO.

Are you getting everything you can out of every football run play in your playbook? Take a look at the detailed anatomy of an offensive play to find out. Football seems pretty simple, right? Move the ball down the field. Score. Block. Tackle. End Zone Celebration or Sack Dance. Not much to it. Yeah, if you’re a football coach you know that’s not true. There’s a lot of work that goes into this. On this episode of The Football Coaching Podcast, I’m breaking down the anatomy of a Football Run Play. What goes into the play every time the ball is snapped? Any good football coach will tell you that it’s all about execution. The best play designs and ideas in the world won’t matter, if your players can’t execute. If you want to see how we put together some pretty good football run plays (and a play action pass), you need to check out my 3 video series on the Power, Counter and Power Pass plays. Visit https://joedanielfootball.com/podcast to get instant access, at no cost to you, because this is my gift to you.

The Off Season is the perfect time for your football team to make improvement in leaps and bounds. But you’ve got to have a plan. On this episode of The Football Coaching Podcast, we’re looking at the 6 areas of Off Season Planning you need to be focused on, including… Academics Recruiting Fundraising Character & Team Building Strength Training Skill Development Football coaches have a lot more to work on during this time than most people thing. You can’t leave any stone unturned when it comes to looking for off season improvement. Listen to this episode of The Football Coaching Podcast right now, and get started planning your Off Season Calendar! In this episode, I mentioned JDFB Insider and the Annual Subscription Plan. Annual Subscribers get Unlimited Coach Licenses, because your entire staff needs to be getting better this off season! Click here to check out JDFB Insider

For the first time on The Football Coaching Podcast, we’re doing something a little different. I’m breaking down the 2004 Utah Offense playbook. Urban Meyer was in his second year at Utah, running this Spread Option attack. Even though it’s the standard of college football today, this was an innovative and unique offense in 2004. When I’m looking at this playbook with you, all I’ll talk about is what I would want to steal. For my own players. You will not hear any talk about the athletes at Utah, or even Urban Meyer himself (except a few shots at Florida, because I couldn’t resist). It’s about what football coaches can learn from an old playbook. You’ll hear about the program philosophy as presented in the playbook. We’ll talk run game including those Spread Option plays - like that shovel option everyone’s so excited about today. Then I’ll look at the passing game that Utah was using in 2004. And why it was so effective. This is a great playbook to examine for coaches. Even though it seems complex watching the offense on TV, the truth is that the Utes kept it simple. There are just a few schemes for players to learn. In reviewing a Utah game from 2004, I saw that they really stay true to the simplicity in the playbook, too. You don’t need a lot of plays to be extremely successful!   Links Download the 2004 Utah Offense Playbook Get Instant Access to my Pistol Power Offense video series at no charge. I’ll detail the Power blocking scheme that is the foundation of Utah’s Shovel Option, along with a Counter and Power Pass (Utah uses the Power and the Power Pass, but there wasn’t a Counter in the playbook).