What do you do pre game and why

I like to be there at least an hour before kickoff. I would prefer an hour and a half but with travel, school, and job conflicts it's not always possible.

I always have a family who is late, it drives me nuts but I understand.

We do a quick dynamic warm-up, then we do our angle tackling drill, not to the ground but pick up the intensity as we work through the drill.

Defense and offense split up, defense works on get-offs, reads, and angle of pursuit.

Offense runs plays on air until the refs call for captains. Coaches line up at point of attack to make sure blocking assignments are correct.

One major concern I always have is the kids sizing up the competition, if the other team a a couple big kids we get so nervous that it rules their little minds during pregame.

I try and keep my team as far away as possible and focused on what we are doing rather than sizing up the other team.

I make sure the players are 100% ready to go 45 mins prior. While they're getting changed, I quiz them on assignments etc, then we run through our formations, base plays, def checks and we're done.

The high school team I coach seems to think they're some sort of pro squad, they start doing things 2 hours early, first just specialists, then they go back in, then other people go out, then back in, then the whole team, then back in, then out for the game. We look like a chinese fire drill in slow motion.

#1 I ask my players to get to the field an hour before the game starts. We throw the ball around until the game before us starts the fourth quarter. Then we start warm-up, angle tackling, run through the base play, defense recognition, ST. I try to keep it moving fast and get every kid sweating a little. I found myself checking a couple of the boys last year while we are worming up. I would grab the shoulder pad under their neck and see if they were too hot or not hot enough. Something one of my youth coaches did to see if we needed a break. Funny how you remember things like that.

#2 No cleaning cob webs for us. The only contact they get before a game is angle tackling and its fit and freeze. I purchased DC book last year and he has statement in it that stuck with me all year. Keep the contact down and the boy will beg for it. we did this the whole season and I was very surprised after the first week they were asking to hit more. The only all out hitting they got last year was in games.

#3 I'm not a guy that likes to talk a lot before a game. We have prepared the boy the week before the game and I'm not one to start jumping up and down to fire them up. I do have a little chant we do while we are warming up. Instead of saying GO or Hut. I start the drills off
Hit-em they reply Hard start the drill
Hit-em they reply Fast next group starts
Hit-em the reply Low last group goes
They all yell it back to me. I’ll keep doing it until all of them are yelling and ready to start practice/worm-ups.

One question that might affect things is whether there's another game on at that location while you're warming up, and if so whether it's another team in your club, i.e. another class that has your same team name and/or colors. Especially if you can't get your team out of sight of the field.