Coming Off a Disappointing Season, Looking to Re-Group

I think at some point you need to give (and have) some time away from football, to recharge the desire.
Is an extra 2 weeks of lifting in December really going to be the difference next October? Maybe, maybe not.
But having a bit of time off does wonders for kids.

One thing I am starting to realize is that - strange as it is for me to understand - people (ie 17 year old males) have other interests outside of football. It's strange for me because I do not.

Too much of a good thing, even Football, is still too much.

Usually, a rough season will be tied to a bad defense. Usually there are poor fundamentals and bad tackling and poor blocking on offense with far too many turnovers to overcome.

I will have shaken confidence and some anger at personnel that I played, cancerous behavior that we tolerated, coaches that were late or absent or going through the motions, my schemes and play calling, typically Ill question the defensive strategy or lack of physical contact in practice making us soft and so on.

What have I done differently?

1) tighten down on discipline- nothing slides.
2) create new incentives for off season weight training and conditioning
3) a greater emphasis on conditioning and discipline (make the athletes better) and contact.
4) smaller offensive playbook to allow more time to improve defense.
5) try to get better athletes out for the team and try to find better assistant coaches.
6) choose captains more wisely, not based on athleticism or grade level but by program buy in and attendance and leadership by example.
7) explore new xs and os and see what fits us.
8) build relationships /bonds in the off season.
9) fundraising, buy new uniforms and tee shirts to get some excitement going about the new season ahead.
10) film study, film study, film study. what worked, what didnt, tweak schemes.

I believe we are losing games due to the following reasons:
1.  Injuries.  We have sustained a considerable number of concussions this year and have lost five seniors to season-ending injuries (ankle, two shoulders, and two knees).  Due to this, the majority of our varsity team is sophomores (also due to a small junior class).
2.  Lack of participation by two sport athletes.  Two year string of injuries (add to the above list three knees and an ankle last season) has scared off many two sport athletes, especially those for which basketball or baseball is their favorite sport.  These student-athletes aren't willing to play football and risk getting hurt and possibly missing out on playing their favorite sport.
3.  Toughest 3A conference in NC.  Our conference has produced the state champion three years in a row and the state runner-up two of the three seasons prior to that.  A mostly sophomore team has struggled playing in that environment.
There may be more reasons.  I am continuing to evaluate...

We too enter our final week 0-9. We are looking at some of the things that coach2013 said [providing Im not fired]. The poster who said why you are losing has a valid point. we have started 4-5 sophs and 1-2 frosh almost every week so inexperience with a schedule where the combined record is about 15 games above .500 has led to our debacle. While we are going to get back offensively to my option preference scheme wise we are exploring HOW we teach and not WHAT we teach. We are also looking at ways to increase PERSONAL accountability in many ways from off season conditioning to in season conditioning. We are also going to try to find ways to increase competitiveness at all times. There was a thread on this earlier we are going to explore. I am going to visit some other programs to see how they run their programs day to day and see what is doable they do that we can incorporate.

Your first reason is either bad luck, or poor off season conditioning.

Your second reason is probably your bigger issue.  You need numbers.  Spend time learning to overcome this......until you do, nothing else is really going to matter.

Your third reason is an opportunity.  View it as such.


What's the youth program like?  Any involvement there?

We just finished 1-8 and met as a staff and most of what coach2013 was on the list. We are going to visit a successful established HS program outside of our area of competition to see what it is we can tweak. I think we really need a fresh set of eyes on our issues.

Dubber, we are making in-roads with the youth programs. Our youth level (elem. aged kids) use our terminology and have open lines of communication. I work closely with the youth level coaches and we hold camps and clinics for these kids several times throughout the year. The issue is the middle school. We lose a lot of kids at that level. I am working hard to get that program on board, but all I have been able to do so far is speak to the team several times before their games. I have a lot more work that needs to be done with that program. Any advice on how to get something going would be appreciated. The middle school coach will not give me the time of day. He is one or two years away from retirement and has been unwilling to work with the high school.

As far as our off-season conditioning program, we model much of our strength philosophy after that of Ethan Reeve of Wake Forest University. He believes you train on your feet as much as possible (because you don't play on your back) and training the push with the pull (e.g. push press followed by pull-ups). This has been the philosophy four schools I have coached at but we plan to review what we are doing in the weightroom in depth once the season has ended. Also, after last year's three ACL tears, we spent time with several local orthopedics and increased our stretching/warm-up routine--we now stretch before and after workouts and have increased the amount of time we spend stretching.

As far as numbers, I recruit the heck out of the school. We are on a block schedule and in the spring I ask for third period planning which allows me to be available to go to the cafeteria during lunch. I spend January through May about three days a week at lunch recruiting kids to play football. I pretty much become the most visible person in the school. I'm not sure what else I can do, but I am open to suggestions as to what others do to get kids to come out (outside of the obvious-WINNING).

Dubber,I agree and will take you up on hand-written notes and going to some basketball games. As far as the middle school, I had visions of meeting with the principal over there after the season for a heart-to-heart visit. Do you think that will help get them on board?

Work on the OL and ride #32... Kid is a player! Looking forward to seeing him develop. Attending their sporting events is always good. I like the idea of hand written notes as well. As for the weight room, push-pull is always good, but make sure you are doing lifts that translate to the football field. Specifically cleans and the like for lineman. Explosion lifts and exercises like kettle bells. Keep working with them... They play hard for you.

Here, we were able to get in written into the HC's contract that he controls the middle school staffing. In other words, he can hire and fire anyone on staff there. That way, they should be in line or they won't be coaching. That makes a tremendous difference. Then the problem can become finding good people to take on that role.

I don't know that I'd invite him to join you at things, I'd tell him he HAS to be there considering the role that he has.

I'm not really sure what options you have, but keeping him doesn't really seem like one.

Building administrators (in this case, Middle School) are often happy these days just to get a warm body to coach their teams, especially if the coach is in the building.

You should have found out when interviewing how much Vertical Continuity there is in the program, i.e. how much control you have over MS Football.

If it wasn't-isn't there, unlikely you will get it now. Would take Superintendent (or AD if latter also runs MS sports) to mandate that and they don't like to tell other administrators how to run their buildings unless it has to do with standardized testing, graduation and dropout rates  - things THEY get evaluated on.

The other thing is, shields, you could spend an inordinate amount of time trying to work with MS and coach - and you not be the head coach at that school by the time those kids reach 11th grade.

Focus your time-energy in that which you can control, the HS program.

I agree some time off might be greatly needed. But I've got kids and coaches already scheming to get in there two weeks after the season. I like the WWF belt deal! We have done t-shirts for motivation in the past, but I really like the belt idea. Shocktroop34, what are some of the competitions you have done in the past?

Luckily we are still playing this season but usually we are done by this point.

A friend and I were talking the other day, there is actually no rule against practicing even if you don't have a game. I don't think this is the way to go but it's a thought.

Be sure to take a break, meet with coaches, see what changes need to be made. Mostly likely the changes that need to be made are very minor.

My suggestion would be to find a way to make your practices more intense and competitive. We did this the past two seasons and we went from being a 3 win team to being a solid program frosh through varsity the past three season. Treat every rep, every drill, every thing you do as a competition. Preach that losing is not an option, not in agility drills, weight room, classroom, indy time, etc.