Issues with coordinators

Well Bobby Bowden was a SBV guy way back in the 60's & 70's. He had to adapt and adjust accordingly to new defense's etc. It's not that he just gave in and let the OC do what he wanted. He had to adapt to the changes in the game. But about your post, as a HC you need to have a offensive and defensive philosophy and stick with it no matter what Offense/Defense you or your coordinators run. Schemes can change but philosophy's shouldn't. Personally I would have a hard time feeling comfortable with coordinators running things I didn't agree with. However, over time if they are having success the more comfortable I weould get and I would trust them doing more and more what they want as long as it's within the HC's philosophy.

as the HC (administrator of the team) you always look to bring in "specialists" that have specific knowledge that you may not possess. If you know more about everything than you coordinators than you could just do everything without them and save the school some money. haha. Your combined knowledge goes towards the effectiveness of your defense or offense or special teams. I am an offense guy, played for and taught by Mumme. I know about defense, but not as much as most. My O-Coordinator is more like my assistant O-coordinator. Helping me by facilitating my ideas. The D- Coordinator has much more power and freedom to run his schemes becuase I admit he knows more about defense than i do. Every HC has that balance...its different for everyone.

I'm more or less with BLB on this. If I were a HC, I'd want a DC or OC to run what I want. Now, in my mind, that means something like, a 3-4 cover 2/4 base with lots of quarters on run-downs and a modular fire zone package. I wouldn't want to tell them when to run specific stunts and I'd leave the ability for them to have influence on things, but it's important to be doing what you want.

If I'm inheriting a DC or OC that's really on the ball and has a great system, maybe, but I'd still want to have my say in certain things. Ex: I like SBV, I inherit a flexbone OC who's really on his game and has Paul Johnson on speed-dial, I'd probably just say "close enough" and let him be.

Basically if you put your foot down and force him to change his defense/offense you have just fired him as coordinator. If I was OC/DC for you and you said "We're going to run X instead of what you've spent all year working on." I'd immediately step back from that so called coordinator position and coach my position up.

I guess it comes down to how you look at a coordinator position. To me the coordinator you hire to run the side of the ball you don't should have near as total control as possible. If you don't have someone you trust to do that than you're both the DC/OC who delegates some authority (maybe even play calling) to a position coach.

I'd avoid any head coach job that doesn't let you pick your own staff and I'd avoid any coordinator position where the HC doesn't cede defensive responsibilities to the defensive coordinator. Being a coordinator means you run the offense that you want and call the plays you want. If you don't have those authorities than IMO you're title exceeds your actual authority.

I had a guy offer me a job several years ago and I passed on it because I knew the minute the passing game did not work at top speed he would want to go back to the wing t.

as a head coach it is your job to teach the assistants what you want done. very few coaches actually do this.

I tell you as a new HC the hardest thing that I've had to do is to hire coaches that are knowledgable AND committed...IMHO..it doesn't really matter what standard (meaning 4/4, 4/3, under," 5-2..etc) defense you want to run..you just have to know how to fix it and get the right guys in the right spots....offense, I think, is a little different meaning that you could be a "franklin team, a flex team a wing T team" That I would want more of a say..this being said, I was thinking about hiring a guy as a DC but he didn't believe in spilling..needless to say, although he was a good coach I didn't hire him as a dc and he didn't want to "lower himself" to be a position coach
ps. I have a position open here in VA next year and i will take Duece off your hands ;D

Don't tempt me...

Nah, I'm going to stay here a little while longer. What hlb did to me is not bad, and I don't blame him, we are both headstrong, he's got his way and I've got mine. He gets waaaaayyyy more pressure than I do though, about a defense he doesn't run. Our offense has been ok, since we started (flexbone), but our defense has seen up's and downs, to which I take personal. So, when he came to me and said make the switch, I bickered and kicked a chair or 2, maybe even broke some sh!t, but I'm loyal to the guy...he gave me a job when I didn't have one, so I did it. By the 3rd game, with me not having many answers to a scheme I didn't know, and us still getting our a$$es pummeled, he got the "x's and o's/jimmies and joes" idea. I didn't switch back, I justed added a wrinkle or 2 and we are playing way better now on defense...almost good enough to win even!!!!


Duece

That's too much to do it right. I've done that as a header, and was so thankful when I had an old buddy come out of retirement to help me as our DC. Worked out great, I did O and all the O s/t's and he did D and all the D s/t's. Man...I miss those days for some reason!!!

Duece

As head coach I make the playbook. I prefer to have a DC and ST coordinator (I call the offense).

I have had situations where I have had to call both offense and defense because of inexperience on staff or because assistants didn't want the responsibility or to put in the time.

I try to delegate most of kicking game (usually keep Punt and Kick off for myself because that determines field position so much) but sometimes assistants have plates full as teachers, position coaches, family etc. it's just easier to do myself because I've been doing it so long rather than teach-force someone else how to do it effectively.

In our state in most situations you are going to inherit a large part if not all of your staff, have very little latitude in bringing in new coaches.

Think Kirby Smart is running "his own defense" at Alabama, for example?

One of my coaching mentors did not care to coach defense (he thought that's what you did when offense screwed up or rested), so when he hired a DC he would ask him, "What do you want to run"?

Conversely - you, as header, allow OC (or DC) complete lattitude to run "his" system. Then he leaves, hopefully to move up the ladder.

What do you do? Promote someone from within who may know scheme but not be ready to coordinate? Or start all over with someone from outside?

Do you hire somebody to run your defense?

Or did you hire somebody to be the Defensive Coordinator?

I'm not sure I can answer like most other head coaches on this board because I didn't have the liberty to go out and find the assistants I wanted to bring in. In particular, I did not interview another coordinator on offense or defense. I advised the Superintendent back in 2007 after the conclusion of my first season as Head Coach that we were not going to get the program moving in the right direction with the people that were in place. I told the sup that I needed more committed, loyal, and knowledgeable coaches on staff because two of four assistants (which were both my varsity assistants) did not have any football coaching experience. One didn't even have any high school playing experience. After the season, my Head JV coach (the only other coach with experience resigned citing the time commitment which created personal/family issues). He ended up coming back to coach the junior high which was much less of a time commitment. One Varsity assistant and one JV assistant didn't get retained due to attendance and philosophical reasons respectively. The JV assistant not retained due to philosophical reasons were not scheme related at all. He still wanted to teach and coach techniques that are now illegal like butt blocking, head slaps, etc. So basically I was in a situation where I could hire 3 assistants after the 2007 season but the district was going to make teaching the #1 priority obviously. The sup was taking a class with another sup that had a student teacher in math and we needed a math teacher. This math teacher also coached the OL/DL at lower levels, primarily freshman, for a great small-school program. He ended up getting hired to teach math and I had a varsity assistant OL/DL coach. Then I found out that a first year teacher on staff had high school playing experience and wanted to coach. Now I had a JV Head Coach. I also brought on another assistant just last year that again didn't have any experience but was loyal and could get taught what needed to be coached to the kids.

Long story short, I am the OC, DC, and STC. It would take some expert offensively to come in for me to be willing to relinquish those duties on a Friday night. There is entirely too many decisions and adjustments to make as an OC and giving up the opportunity to make those decisions every Friday night with the amount of work I put in is not something I would consider. There is too much at stake. If you feel like you are the one that can lead the team to wins as a coordinator then you need to be the one doing it even if it's all three phases. Again, if an expert walks in the door, maybe I consider delegating the OC responsibilities but otherwise absolutely not. A DC also needs to be organized and he needs to be a complete film grunt. They need to be willing to break down the tapes which takes hours to do over a weekend which is already short. The DC needs to have a game plan by Sunday based off of not just watching the film as it runs through but through actual breakdown. The assistants can then make suggestions but the overall plan is basically there because you have thought it through. DCs must truly understand what the opponent's offense is trying to do to in order to stop them. I don't know that I'll have someone on staff willing to put in the hours on Saturday breaking down film which for me is about 8 hours worth of work. Then developing a game plan takes an additional hour and half or so. Our staff makes an 8 hour commitment on Sunday already, 5 together as a staff for the upcoming week's game plan/practice organization and 3 hours with the players watching the previous Friday night's game. I feel fortunate to even have that time with the staff to get organized so venturing past that, I believe is not a realistic possibility. The STC needs to understand and be able to coach the techniques of each of the different special teams units and the specialty skills involved. Right now, I still have assistants trying to come into their own as position coaches. They are not ready to take the leap into the coordinating realm yet. They have to begin to understand the process, particularly the organization and preparation, that it takes to coordinate any phase of the game. The level of organization a coordinator must have for all the pieces come together is very high. There is a time commitment associated with that organization out of season and especially during the season over the weekends that I don't think my staff wants to take on. Therefore, this is ultimately why I do all three. If I had someone who was willing to make the time commitment that I already make or do it with me most likely, there would be another level of trust established among that assistant that could potentially lead to him coordinating the defense or special teams. Also, the schemes that we run were unfamiliar to any of the coaches when they started but they are getting better. Having them install their own schemes they had experience with was not an option or anything I had to worry about. When these coaches were being considered for the assistant jobs back in 2007, they had zero experience as an OC, DC, or STC. The challenge of doing all three (OC, DC, STC) is not as bad as some people make it out to be. It's a time commitment, no doubt, but if you're willing to make it...it's possible to do and your team can compete with the right person performing those roles. However, if you have the option to go out and hire an OC or DC, be open to what they bring to the table. If he's good and you can visualize the team running what he wants to and the team being successful doing it...tell him to have at it. Give him the keys and tell him not to wreck it.

Understandable phantom but I'm betting you were never in a situation where new header came in (school you were already at) to rebuild a losing program.

Very well stated and thought out post. I might add to your comments, I believe an HC begins to trust his assistants in the off season. It amazes me, that guys who show up on August 12th all of the sudden think they should have the keys to the car.

I think vision is the key to this post, however, delegation and teaching is paramount. Coach, with all due respect, you are a great leader, but the best leaders are the ones who surround themselves with good people. You are going to wear yourself out.

Back on point, I would have a hard time coaching at a place where I wasn't allowed to do some coaching, but I would not want to coach at a place where there was no "vision". "This is what we do, because it is what we do". I can get on board with that. There are many ways to skin a cat, pick one and tell me what you want to do next and then look at the results. If the results aren't there then let's adjust.