The Football Coaching Podcast with Joe Daniel

Defensive play calling might seem simple. Pick a front, maybe throw in a blitz, choose a coverage. But it’s not. Defensive football in general isn’t nearly as simple as some would make it out to be. Sure, at the heart of the matter you just find the football and get the guy to the ground. But if that was all it took, we’d all be geniuses. On this episode of The Football Coaching Podcast, we’re looking at how to call you defensive fronts to effectively stop the offense. More than play calling, we’re talking about how to game plan the fronts you want to use. I’ll even give you a 6-Step Process for choosing your defensive fronts when you game plan for an opponent. This is a great to figure out how to put your players in position to succeed! Doesn’t matter what your base defense is, either. No matter what defense you run, this podcast will help you game plan your fronts to shut down the run. Check it out! And if you want to go even deeper in learning defensive fronts, start your JDFB Insider subscription right now! You’ll get access to 4 Complete Defensive Systems instantly. Click here to get started right now.

It’s just 3 yards. How hard can it be? 2 Point Conversion Plays seem like easy points. But they won’t be unless your team is prepared. If you have a good field goal kicker, the 2 Point Conversion may be something you only use when you need it. For other coaches, it’s an absolute necessity. There’s a lot to think about when you put together your 2 Point Package. How many plays do you need? Do the come from your regular offense? Or will you use special plays? In this episode of The Football Coaching Podcast, we’re going to go into preparing a 2 Point Conversion package. From basic philosophy behind 2 point plays, to specific plays that you can use in your offense right now. At some point, you’ll have a football game that will come down to the 2 Point Conversion Play. Listen to this episode now to get the jump on your preparation for that moment! In this episode, I mention the Power Pass and other parts of our Pistol Power Offense System. Visit http://pistolpoweroffense.com to find out how you can get Instant Access to this complete Offensive System right now!

The 3-4 Defense is one of the most popular schemes being used in High School, College and the NFL today. Unfortunately, just saying that you 'run a 3-4 Defense' won't tell anyone else a whole lot. Sure, you use 3 down linemen and 4 linebackers. But they can be arranged in a huge variety of ways. And flexibility is one of the strengths of the 3-4 Defense.  Within JDFB Insiders, I teach The 3-4 Defense System as my own preferred brand of the scheme. It's not too complicated, and grew from our 4-2-5 Defense playbook.  Find another coach running the 3-4 Defense. It's likely that his version will look different. You might 2-gap the defensive linemen. Or base out of a different coverage. Or you might not call it a 3-4 Defense at all. Maybe you call this a 5-2 Defense. They're the same. Check out https://joedanielfootball.com/80 for my entire rant on how there's only 4 defensive schemes in football. Plenty of people have argued with me, no one has convinced me I'm wrong yet. For this episode of The Football Coaching Podcast, we're talking all about The 3-4 Defense. Advantages, disadvantages, and how we teach the scheme inside of JDFB Insiders.  You can get Instant Access to my Complete 3-4 Defense System right now for just $1! Plus you'll get access to 4 other complete football coaching systems inside of JDFB Insider. Visit https://joedanielfootball.com/tryit to start your 14 Day Trial for just $1 right now! Available only during the month of October!

Playing Center is not the most glamorous position. It’s the opposite. In the NFL, the Left Tackle gets all the glory on the Offensive Line. Probably the only position to consistently get recognized up front. Sure, there’s a few Centers who become well known. They usually have a high command of the offense and play for many years. And they’re snapping the ball to some of the top Quarterbacks in football. In High School Football, the Center will rarely get that kind of recognition. His recognition is more likely to come from a bad snap, than from anything positive he contributes to the team. Offensive Line Coaches know the truth. The Center is often the single most important guy in your blocking scheme. Within our Pistol Power Offense System, there’s a lot of variation. We don’t always line up in Pistol (less than 1% of snaps this season). And Power isn’t always the top run play (it’s been Zone most of this season). The one consistent factor in our System is that we are as good as the Center. His talent, work ethic, effort and mastery of the offense go a long way. Rarely the most talented blocker. It’s more likely the opposite. How you coach your Center is critical to score more points. In this episode of The Football Coaching Podcast, I’ll break down just what you need to do to get more production from your center. Want to learn more about The Pistol Power Offense System? You’ll get instant access to my exclusive 3 Video Series on the Power Series at no charge, when you sign up at http://pistolpoweroffense.com/podcast.   Links Jock Sutherland Snap taught by Ted Seay: https://youtu.be/gtboAyXHl_k Gil Brandt’s Greatest NFL Centers of All Time

Things might be going well. They may not be. For whatever reason, you feel like you need to make some changes. Big one’s. It’s time for the playoff push. Or you’re just trying to salvage the season from disaster. So you’re thinking about making drastic changes. You want to change you a whole new defensive scheme. Right now. In the middle of the season. In today’s episode of The Football Coaching Podcast, I’ll explain why you should not change your defensive scheme right now! At least… why you shouldn’t make any big time, wholesale changes. There’s always room for adaptation and improvement. It’s absolutely necessary if you want to be successful! If you’re running a well designed defensive system, none of this will be a problem. A good coaching system is easy to adapt and adjust. Game to game and year to year. But if you aren’t doing that, you may be tempted to make some major changes right now. I’ll help you decide what changes to make, and which changes to avoid. And how to get your team’s defense back on track for the second half of the season. Don’t forget to visit and follow my Twitter Profile Page @footballinfo to vote for next week’s poll topic! We’ll be talking about Offensive Line, so don’t miss it! Want to check out the newly updated JDFB Insiders right now? You can get a 14 Day Free Trial for only $1 for a Limited Time. Sign up at https://joedanielfootball.com/tryit.

  In a big runaway win from our Twitter Poll this week, the Veer Option received 35% of the vote! And I’m excited about that. This episode won’t cover the entire offense, of course. That’s impossible. We’ll be focusing on The Split Back Inside Veer play. Two whole episodes of old school (sort of) Option Football in a row! What a treat. All the Spread Offense guys have left us by now. But we’re still having fun. In today’s episode I’m going to go deep dive on the Inside Veer play. Everything you need to know. We’ll talk about how to line up your offensive formation to get in the right places to attack. Then I’m going to talk about the basics of the blocking scheme for the Inside Veer. After that, it’s all about the Option mechanics of the backfield. The dive, the keep, and the pitch. I’ll close out the episode by talking about some of the counters and play action you can run off the Split Back Inside Veer play. It’s everything you need to get started with this Offense, and decide if you want to do more research. Resources If you decide to go further, you’ll want to check out these resources (I used these for this podcast)... The 1968 Houston Veer Option playbook Controlling Defense with The Veer Option Offense with J.T. Curtis from Championship Productions. Huge Wyatt’s article on The Split Back Veer Offense, The Veer Explained Bruce Eien’s resources on the Split Back Veer. How to Install the Complete Option Game from Jerry Campbell. Not Split Back Veer but a good book if you just want to learn some Option.          

I love college football. That doesn’t mean I’m glued to the TV all day every Saturday. However, I’ll usually stop to watch Georgia Tech’s Flexbone Option Offense on the field for at least a series or two. Not because I love Georgia Tech, let’s make that clear. I’m a lifelong UGA fan. But man, that offense is a thing of beauty. Most people I talk to don’t understand it. They think the Flexbone Option Offense is boring to watch. Makes no sense to me. How could anything be more exciting than Option Football!? Oh well. At least there’s still a few schools out there doing something to excite us football coaches (and probably infuriate some of their boosters) every Saturday. On this episode of The Football Coaching Podcast, I’m going to look back at the foundations and origins of The Flexbone Option Offense. Where did it come from? How did it get to where it is today? Truth be told, there’s not a ton of information on this. Paul Johnson doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who’s interested in writing a book. At least not yet. We’ll take it back to the days of the Wishbone Option. And even before that. On up to those 1-AA National Championship teams at Georgia Southern in the 1980s and 1990s. I’ll also talk about the basic concepts of the offense and what makes it unique. The Flexbone Option Offense is a lot of fun to watch, and it’ll be a lot of fun to talk about on this episode of The Football Coaching Podcast!

The mark of a great coach is the ability to adjust during the game. It’s not easy, and it takes a lot of experience. Adjusting your football run defense is no difference. Unfortunately, a lot of the football run defense adjustments you make won’t work, just because the team you’re playing is flat-out better than you. Those game winning adjustments will be few and far between, no matter how good you are. But there’s a chance. You will win some games in your career because of great adjustments for your football run defense. Football Run Defense Tips in This Episode What to look for during the game to decide on needed adjustments How to build a library of potential adjustments for your football run defense to be ready for anything. We’ll look at adjusting for problems with individual players, and for your overall defensive scheme. Preparing your football team for the run defense adjustments that you might use during the game (you always need to think one step ahead in your game planning!) When to make adjustments on your defense, and when you should stick with the plan. How to install a last-minute football run defense adjustment with your players that still allows them to play fast. Links in This Show My interview with Coach James Vint on running the Pistol Option Offense: https://joedanielfootball.com/vint/ Check out The 4-2-5 Defense System to get Instant Access at one low monthly rate with no contract, cancel anytime. Visit http://425defense.com for all the details.

Paul “Bear” Bryant is a coaching legend. There’s not much question about that. He won 6 National Championships as the Head Football Coach at the University of Alabama. The image of his houndstooth hat is unmistakeable. But we’re football coaches, and we’re not just interested in the story of a coach who won a lot of football games (323 games, to be exact). We want to know how. And why. In this episode of The Football Coaching Podcast, we’ll take a look at the early year of Paul “Bear” Bryant’s coaching career. How did he come to be the legend at Alabama? Starting with his upbringing in Arkansas, to his playing days at Alabama, we’ll look at the rise of one of the most legendary figures in our profession. On to his time in the Navy during World War II, and his first head coaching job that followed, at the University of Maryland. Then on to Kentucky, and of course, to Texas A&M. The site of the famous Junction Boys. Don’t get too excited, I plan to leave the Junction Boys story for another time. When this went on the Twitter Poll @footballinfo, I had every intention of covering Coach Bryant’s entire career. But after doing my research, well… there’s just no way. Instead, it’s time to lay the foundation on one of the greatest coaching legends of all time! I’ll share my thoughts, my own personal (though pretty thin) connection to Bear Bryant, and a few interesting stories on Episode 210 of The Football Coaching Podcast! This episode is sponsored by JDFB Insider, where you can get access to all 5 of my Coaching Systems, plus a whole lot more. Check out https://joedanielfootball.com/membership for all the details on how you can get instant access, right now.

The Overhang Safeties in your 8-man front defense set the edge. Defend the flats. They are critical to shrinking the field for your defense. Overhang Safeties are a major piece in your 4-2-5 Defense or 3-3-5 Defense. If you call it a 4-4 Defense or 3-5-3 Defense, they’re your Outside Linebackers. The principles are still the same. Episode 209 of The Football Coaching Podcast will go in depth on coaching the Overhang Safety position. This won our Twitter Poll @footballinfo this week. Check in each week to vote for the next topic. I’ll talk about the alignment of the Strong Safety and Weak Safety. We’ll look at why you use variations in alignment and how to align your defenders to maximize their effectiveness. We’ll look at the most effective stance for your defenders to execute their assignment. In this episode, I’m also going to address the most common question I get about the Overhang Safeties. What keys should they read? My answer is a little different than most, but something I have found to be very effective from week to week and season to season for these guys. Finally, we’re going to dive into how to coach the technique for your Strong Safety and Weak Safety to perform their job within the defense to help you shut down your opponent. There’s a lot of variation in this topic based on coverage. We could probably break it down by coverage, and again by Strong and Weak Safety. I’ll talk about these guys in as much detail as possible without getting too specific to your coverage. But there will be some differences. I also focus a lot on the 4-2-5 Defense System and how we teach our defenders in there. You can get all the details on the System and get instant access today when you check out http://425defense.com.