Do You Have A Self-Developed Program Plan?

yes

I picked the middle one (not yet, but I plan on it)


I am constantly planning----this is not something I am putting off. In fact, I worry about it constantly.

I do not believe my football IQ/experience is at a high enough level to formulate a hard and fast "plan".


It is sort of like when I first got to college (que the hazy, flashback dream sequence):

I thought I had my metaphysics, epistomology and axiology in order---------then I read Plato, then Sartre, then Hume------------------holy crap, I gotta start at square one.


The same thing applies to football. I came from the "run the ball, stop the run, be tougher than the opponent" school of football from my playing days. I thought that was what it took to succeed.


After I stopped playing, and actually started to study the game, I found things were not 100% that way. I became a polytheist of scheme..........jumping around to whatever seemed to be "fool proof"



Then, I began to understand the philosophies behind the system-----that these systems were coaches' answers to winning games, not a collection of plays. They looked at personnel, current trends in the opposition, and came up with a method of playing football to give themselves an advantage.




Then, I began to understand that the system is not exclusive to victory or success. There are plenty of crappy Air Raid teams, and some teams that seem unstoppable running it. There are out of this world DW teams, and painful to watch DW teams.


My big question was: WHY? Sometimes it is coaching, sometimes it is talent, sometimes it is luck. THese things affect differently at different degrees. The most common aspect linking them all (that is, successful programs), regardless of scheme, talent, luck, and even coaching ability was program identity; how exactly is the f-ing thing ran? All the non-sexy things: player discipline, off-season conditioning, Team attitude, organization, etc.----------these were the most important things when I comes to building a successful program. A complete program covers everything and is prepared for anything.




To my frustration, I found the approaches to building a program are as numerous as offensive schemes.





Still, I need to search deeper.......I had/have to develop my own philosophy...................what are the factors I think are necessary to have a successful program?




What are the areas of the game I want to win (the battles) in order to win the game (the war)? Which system, that fits my personnel the best, best accomplishes this goal?

Then, comes all the important, over looked stuff:

*installation
*personnel adjustments
*damage control



I need to study program structure of the great programs, AND THE BAD ONES. What is common to winning programs and how they do things (and therefore needs to be emulated)? What is common to losing programs (and needs to be avoided at all costs)?


It is a very exhausting problem.


Here is some of the things I have so far, in no order:



*A great coach must first be a great organizer and planner.........then a teacher...........then a playcaller (boy did I have this one backwards!)


*Absolutes do not exist in football-----there is no holy grail of doing things---------some things my have more merit for your situation, but nothing is 100%..............the great ones have the foresight and wisdom to know the best direction to carry their team


*Being liked and being respected CAN be different things. Respect, I have found, is more conducive to winning


*Great teams (sustaining, year-in-year-out WINNERS) do it the right way-----discipline, humility, fortitude, ethical.


*Scheme wise:

1. you gotta be able to take what they give you. When you are the better team, it doesn't matter. When you are equal, you have to be flexible enough to make them pay when they overplay something (flexibility, btw, doesn't mean 50/50 run pass-----it means to give enough threat of something else, that the defense will not sell out to stop the bread and butter. On defense, it means being able to stop the preferred method of attack, adjusting if necessary to do that)


2. Simplicity. Out executing your opponent is more important than trying to "out think" them and "out play call" them




That's about it------------for now

wheat ale somehow figures into my perfect program (newcastle though)


sometimes I think the things that contribute to a winning season are incidental (injuries, this kid's parents got divorced, starting QB went to an optomotrist and finally sees 20/20, the school took out the vending machines, during 2-a-days a kid eats a bug, and he thinks it makes him super human, etc.)



BUT the things that make a great program year-in & year-out are controllable.

yeah, I really need to develop my own philosophy. Any ideas?

Yes, I called it my "Head Coach Manual" and I presented it when I applied for the head coach position at my school 7 years ago. I got my ideas from Coach Jerry Campbell long ago and organized it with his help. After I was hired the AD told me that the interview committee remarked that it helped me get the job without having previous head coaching experience (at the varsity level). I also sent coach calande a copy a couple years ago for his reference.
By the way, great post dubber.

Pretty much the same thing Coach Moore just posted.

I chose not yet, but i am working on it. I'm still finishing school so that I could get into the game but I think it is import because it gives ME direction.

I think as a coach you should have some idea of what type of coach you want to be. Even if it changes(which I'm sure it will) you need a starting point. Thats where I am right now the starting point but to be honest i don't think there will ever be an ending.

Danger -- logic loop -- self-referential thread implosion imminent...



You had one of those too?