Why do new HC's take over offenses?

I think that part of it has to do with controlling the tempo of the game. Since the head coach is responsible for game management decisions, they can decide how to control tempo best in key situations.

I agree, plus there are a lot of HC's that believe offense is the quickest way to get you beat.

My decision was based on my staff. I was the DC before and when given the HC job we had no real offensive minded guys on staff. I and they all felt much more confident with one of those guys running the D.

Let's stop beating around the bush. Here's a thought/question:

Defense is "easier" to hand to some one. It's easier to give someone the playbook or give them the reins and say, run it.

Let the yelling begin.

I will have to disagree with that. If you are a competent DC, you work your tail off to get kids in the right front, coverage, and stunt to be successfull against your opponent. The comment anyone can blink thier way through calling a defense is in my opinion false.

Coachd,

I agree with almost everything you said. There is no question in my case that some of it is ego. I was ok right up to the part where you said "don't spend enough time Sat-Thurs". I couldn't disagree more with that. I bust my ass preparing (up to 25-30 hrs a week) a game plan that will work against what we've seen on film and when we scouted. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But when it doesn't it's not from lack of preparation and coaching. I agree that coaches can't win games on Friday night. But they sure can lose them making bad decisions and play calls.

If you've coordinated offense, you know you can pretty much control your own destiny...just score more points, and if you are an "offensive" guy, you relish the challenge.

If you've coordinated defense, you know that the best laid defensive plans that you slave over can be shat on by a moron controlling the offense.


That said, I don't see guys like Lovie Smith / Buddy Ryan / Tony Dungy having tremendous control / input over what the offense is doing.

On defense, as long as you line up correctly,fit your gap, and hustle...that is 80% of a defense's success. Defenses change every week to have to face the formations they play. Therefore, you CANNOT get too exotic or creative on defense, you HAVE to run a base defense that adjusts to each team every week, with minor tweaks.

Offense really doesn't have to stay the same every week....they have a base package and then they break out the bright colors and get creative running all kinds of plays.

EGO says, I am a kick butt coach...I am going to show people how smart I am, and all these cool new plays I have.

coachd5085,

You say you don't want to get into a shooting match and then you pretty much clobber HS coaches in general, because we don't put as much time in as "college" coaches. Most HS coaches teach a full schedule in addition to their coaching duties and don't have the time frame allotted to college coaches to devote to football. It would be great to have a limited teaching schedule and be able to have staff meetings prior to practices and position meetings as well. However, when you are the only coach in the building and your staff gets there at different times, you're happy when they all arrive so you can get started.

And I have to disagree with the concept of putting in time. If the time is used effectively in a constructive manner you can accomplish alot in that 25-30 hour time frame per week that you look down upon.

Football is football, it's not rocket science. But college and HS are apples and oranges when it comes to the time element because of the college structure that has full time coaches or coaches with a very small teaching schedule. I don't know of too many full time coaches at the HS level at least in PA.

I will agree that ego does play into the choice but not because coaches think to highly of themselves and their impact on Friday nights, but because ego can be associated with confidence in what you are doing and believe in. That to me means your program as a whole and all the preparation and hard work that goes into putting that program on display on Friday nights. Any coach worth his salt will tell you that games are won through the preparation done from January to August and Saturday to Thursday. Friday nights are a reflection of how well you have prepared your team.

Just my own opinion, feel free to disagree.

I have been both and I just enjoy Defense more.
That is why I brought in an OC and stayed as the DC.

I like a lot of what is being said here. I am a young guy and will be starting my first year as a head coach in the fall. I have always been a defense guy. I loved defense when I played and enjoyed it so much more than offense (and I played QB). However, I will be coordinating the offense for my team. The reason is because I am going to be implementing an entirely different offense than the one that was ran last year. I know that I can't ask an assistant to prepare like I have for the last month and like I will over the summer. Like others have maybe eluded to...the offense is the face of your team, like it or not. Guys are recognized as a "DWer" or a "Spread guy" not a Tampa 2 or 46 guy. Now, I will be a position coach on defense and believe that AT THE LEVEL MY TEAM PLAYS, this is where defense is taught. It isn't about scheming and diagraming, it is about teaching a kid how to get off of blocks and how to tackle. I believe, maybe incorrectly, that I as a coach can have more impact offensively through scheming than I can defensively. So, it boils down to this. I want to keep my job. I am going to CONTROL the side of the ball that is the face of the team and that I feel I can have the greatest (however minor) impact on the outcome through scheming. That is offense.

I dont know why it is, but I wish less HC were OC, b/c I have coached OL for 6 years, and would like to move up to OC and one day HC, but very few schools around here are hiring OC's b/c the HC is the OC. Makes stepping up the ladder hard for me. I feel as if I had been a defensive assistant I would have gotten a shot at a DC by now.

Sorry that it came across that way. I certainly was not trying to clobber ANY H.S. coaches. As I clearly stated, my thoughts on the matter were construed based on my personal experience with a few H.S's and those coaches tend to OVER emphasize Friday nights, and undervalue all the work they could be doing to make Friday night a success during the week. Also, I said MANY coaches would not be impressed with 25-30 hours for football in a week. THOSE MANY would be HIGH SCHOOL coaches. Just looking at this board, (there was a thread about this) there were MANY H.S. coaches who also talked about doing 20-30 hour weekends. So this was not a college vs H.S. thing. This was a coach thing.

Again, as far as playcalling, pretty irrelevant if you execute.

Coachd,

I'm ok with your opinion. If I didn't own a business and have to work in it 50-60 hours during the week I would probably agree that 25 - 30 hours isn't alot. Unfortunately I do have to work on the job that feeds my family during the season too. I would gladly spend 70 hours a week on football if it paid the bills!! ;-)

By the way, just so you know, it's not my goal to impress anyone on this board with my work ethic. I really could care less whether anyone is impressed with it or not. The point is, to address your original question, that we as a staff do work hard to make sure that we are prepared for the game the following week. As far as playcalling goes you and I will have to agree to disagree on the value of it during the course of the game.

Just curious, are you a head coach now or have you ever been in the past?

LOL, I am sorry but if it takes 20+ hours to come up with an offensive game plan you are doing something wrong- likely second guessing and out thinking yourself. Good lord if it takes you 20+ hours to come up with it how can you teach it to high school kids in 4 days? I think alot of guys way over state the time they put in and do not always use their time productively- you can have a 20+ hour weekend and only really put in 10-12 hours.