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Post by pvogel on Dec 7, 2014 13:02:52 GMT -6
I was talking with my HC about this earlier in the week and I'm curious to see what the great minds on here think.
The question is -
If you are a team in the College Football playoff, you have 3 1/2 weeks to prepare for the first game, and then 9 days to prepare for the National Championship. If you're a team in the playoff, how do you prepare for this?
- Do you prepare for the first team only and truly take it one game at a time?
- Do you use a week to prepare for each team?
- Do you have your staff scout all 4 teams but only show the players the first opponent?
Curious as to how everyone would go about it.
I think it'd make sense to have your staff break down all 3 possible opponents. I'd sell the first week or so to the kids as "focusing on us" in practice. But the scout cards would be of the possible teams we could meet in the championship. So we would be practicing for all 3 but not necessarily telling the kids about it. Then you use the next 2 weeks or so to prepare for your first game.
What are yall thinking about how you'd prepare for this schedule?
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Post by mariner42 on Dec 7, 2014 14:36:42 GMT -6
As a defensive guy, go in this order of priority: self scout, opponent scout, team that presents the greatest problem on the other side of the bracket.
Example: let's say I'm Bama and we are playing TCU and the other game is Stanford (for arguments sake) vs FSU. So we self scout, scout TCU, and then scout FSU since they're both the likely winner and the one that is more problematic to prep for, given that Stanford is fairly vanilla in their offense in comparison to FSU. If FSU gets upset, you may have wasted some work but you're not totally SOL.
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Post by Chris Clement on Dec 7, 2014 15:01:46 GMT -6
We didn't have 3 weeks but this year we did have a long week heading into our semifinal game so we had the scouting done for both possible finals opponents and a skeleton game plan for the most likely opponent. With three weeks they'll have basically everything done, you can't spend three weeks looking at one opponent.
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Post by Coach Huey on Dec 7, 2014 15:54:23 GMT -6
1. How do you prepare for week 3 opponent when you in week 2 of the schedule?
2. How do you prepare for the 2nd round playoff opponent at the end of the regular season but prior to the playoffs starting?
How does length of time between games - 3 weeks, 9 days, etc. - have any bearing compared to what you do for scenario 1 and scenario 2 above?
My answer... you do what you normally do.
for us, answer to number 1 is we trade film with our week 3 opponent Thursday morning of the week we are playing our #2 opponent. We have 1 coach break down each side of ball - do some thursday, some friday, finish up saturday. This is way to get a head start.
during playoffs, if we can get hands on film prior, we will do same thing. if not, must do it all that weekend.
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Post by jg78 on Dec 7, 2014 16:49:48 GMT -6
Is trading film on Thursday morning a requirement for your league, coach? In our league, we are "supposed to" have film exchanged by noon Sunday. Most of the time we get a film by sometime Saturday afternoon, but that has not always been the case. Sometimes it has stretched into Sunday. Few things piss me off as much as having to wait on a film over the weekend.
When we're playing a good team the next week (or maybe a coach who isn't very reliable in terms of getting film exchanged promptly) I will usually call the teams they have played recently and get the films there. I won't have the most recent game, but I will have a couple to get me started. Unless the team we are playing in the current week is a real cupcake and next week's opponent is a great team, I don't normally look ahead. But I do want to make sure I have all the films I need so that I can hit the ground running first thing Saturday morning.
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Post by dubber on Dec 7, 2014 19:28:14 GMT -6
I love Mariner42's suggestion of self scouting.
They have EVERY film on you, and like you, will be pouring through EVERYTHING.
Time to break tendencies.
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Post by pvogel on Dec 8, 2014 5:26:52 GMT -6
Some good thoughts.
I'm curious about the Thursday film trade too. I like the idea, but we're always waiting on teams to respond to our trade saturday morning. Most of the time we did not get their film until after noon on saturday. Drove me nuts.
And it makes sense that you wouldn't change your prep during the week just because you have more time... but... i dunno. It seems like using the whole 25 or so days for 1 team could get stale.
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Post by Coach Lindsay on Dec 8, 2014 5:58:35 GMT -6
There is a lot of time to do a lot of things in my book.
I think the majority of work I would place on the coaches, in that you can spend half a week breaking down the possible opponents in the final, to give you a head start running into the final weeks prep (if you make it there.)
On the field I would be week 1 back to fundies and a more friendly and fun session, increasing the intensity into week two, with basic introduction into attack the opposition and week 3 completing all install but dialing back the contact, but not intensity.
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Post by s73 on Dec 8, 2014 6:48:41 GMT -6
I would use the 1st week similar to what somebody above said.
First week, less about opponent, more about us. Improve fundamentally! More indy and group work, less team time. Spend time on things you've had problems with. Maybe a particular look or something like that. Could even shorten practice if you feel the kids need to be "refreshed".
Second week I would treat like a normal week and use the extra time to prep. maybe add a wrinkle or two but I would be very careful not to do too much out of the norm as I think this can get you into trouble.
Third week same as second but maybe focus a bit more on 90% of what you're going to be doing.
I personally would not ficus on 2nd opponent as they do not matter if you don't beat the first. Besides you still have 9 days. more than normal to prep for them. JMO.
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Post by wingtol on Dec 8, 2014 6:52:26 GMT -6
I would tell my GA's they have a lot of work to do breaking down the other 3 teams.  I don't follow it very closely but is there a limit on how many practices they can have or when they can start? I thought there were some guide lines about that for bowl teams and did not know if they put those in place for the playoffs as well. Sure that would be a factor in how you get ready. I would bet the teams will focus on their first round opponent since if you don't beat them there is no next game. |
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Post by agap on Dec 8, 2014 10:44:16 GMT -6
For the players, all they should be worried about is their first opponent. As a coach, I would be more focused on the first opponent but I would also do some work for the next if we happen to win. Or make another coach start to breakdown the next opponent.
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Post by groundchuck on Dec 8, 2014 11:17:22 GMT -6
Players 100% on first one.
GA's start breaking down other two once they are done with the upcoming game.
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