Seriously Innovative Ideas Forthcoming?

And Kurt...I'm working on a D-11 Defense.

The key to success will be keeping it simple. Five or six Single Wing plays (that was what you meant by "SW", yes?) and a similar number of Air Raid route packages. If in doubt, cut the last two runs and passes off your list and go with 8 plays total.

Here's a start along those lines, at least in terms of running Air Raid packages from Single Wing:

www.scribd.com/doc/437709/Two-Useful-Pass-Route-Packages-from-an-Integral-Bunch

And you're slow, too...

;D ;D

Ted,
That 'Y Stick' Pass is a killer! We loved it last season. I'm so glad I stole....err....learned it from you.

No answer is what the wrong question begets.

I don't want to be down on looking for things that are seriously innovative, since when they come around it is great, but the "seriously innovative ideas" approach is a bit problemmatic to me. I don't think you have to revolutionize the physics of football every time. I think you might do yourself more harm than good to constantly try and reinvent the wheel. I think there are interesting problems, so here are the areas I'm interested in exploring:

(1) Physics of blocking schemes, leverage, etc. Dealing with fronts for the run game.

(2) Protection schemes and dealing with fronts. All the puzzles you'd ever want.

(3) Coverages that really give you trouble. (One theory I have is that it is {censored} near disuseful to even discuss base, old Cover 2 anymore. I see it so rarely. You see Tampa 2, tough 2, Cover 4 variants, etc).

(4) Unbalanced sets. I think this is only going to grow.

Why did this die? This is awesome!

Adding more options to routes that read on coverage, in particluar to crossing routes. Have discussed some of that here, and elsewhere.

Combining blocking techniques for half line items so you end up blocking one side of the line with all the blockers.

Set the line deep, run off timed or silent counts, run half the line upfield hard like they would a tunnel screen and half fold the other side but instead of doing a turn hinge they come over like a trey pull and flatten linemen left free to clear past the play side linemen.

You're getting blockers upfield for the screen and still getting hands down by putting big blockers on the penetration players behind the LOS.

It would basically be a swinging gate play off the back side of the line and you'd be doing the opposite to the front side. Probably running the play itself to contain end's side as 6 tech or more and opposite the read end or 5 tech.

That would allow you to do two screen reads as well, a tunnel look and trail it with a sprint draw, or likewise opposite. It could perhaps clear a tunnel screen from across the formation so there's less chance of recognition keys or motion keys being used to anticipate the call.

This would mostly work with shotgun teams who are pass first, not teams who use the spread gun to run from.

Chris: I don't know about you, but I couldn't if I tried.

The only times I approach originality is when I take two or more concepts and try and put them together in ways I haven't seen before. I tried to put together the Bunch Attack and Run & Shoot passing games, and I came up with the early version of my Wild Bunch offense. Then I found Mark Speckman's Fly Sweep offense, put it together with the Wild Bunch -- and found that Manny Matsakis got there several years before I did, joining the R&S and Fly together in his Triple Shoot offense.

More recently, I've added an innovative single wing half-spin counter series to the shotgun Fly Sweep and come up with the gun version of the Wild Bunch:

www.scribd.com/doc/2550996/gWB

So I guess physics revolutions are out of the question, at least in my case, but football stumbles bravely forward anyhow...

ah ... so many coaches think it's about being "revolutionary" ...

we all got great plays, so why does one team win and the other lose? ...

maybe we should focus more on HOW we practice, WHAT we practice, WHAT drills we do, HOW we train, WHEN we call certain plays, and WHY we call certain plays... etc.

don't focus on your schemes -- focus on your methodology ... THAT is revolutionary ... haha

i'm not trying to be 'revolutionary' ... i'm not looking for 'the next best thing' ... because, a play is just that one play. a scheme is just that, a mere scheme. playcalling, practice procedures, training methods, program policies, etc. these are things i'm talking about. don't be 'revolutionary' in them (i.e. how can I "change" the game) just be BETTER at them. that is what i'm saying. focus on getting better at calling the right play at the right time. focus on repping the properly needed plays more efficiently & effectively in practice. focus on establishing better locker room chemistry, etc. being a "revolutionary" not likely to win me any games... being "better", though, likely will. so, THAT is what one should probably focus on. and .. hey, guess what ... sometimes, in that focus on simply being more efficient/effective we stumble across something that someone else sees as "revolutionary" ... just worry that when you go looking for the revolutionary magic bullet, you lose sight of those things which really matter. i mean, if i gave you "the" play to run. well, you still gotta teach it right, you still gotta call it at the right time, etc., etc. so ... seems to me that we probably ought to focus on THAT rather than looking for that magic bullet.

what i'm trying to say is that "revolutionizing" the game isn't the goal. getting better at playing the game should be.

[glow=red,2,300]CAN I HEAR AN "AMEN" ON THAT ONE PEOPLE???[/glow]



Sometimes I feel like I am the only one left who still feels that practice organization, game planning, technique, weight room, fundamentals, emotional desire etc. etc. are the areas we should be seeking to improve...not how pretty and smart our new "schemes" look.

My wife is a cheerleading coach. Cheerleaders get judged on how orignial and innovative their routines are. In football, that's not the goal (although, sometimes you wouldn't know it by reading on the internet).

I honestly think all of this "let's revolutionize the game" talk is getting to be a bit self-serving of us.

Offensive coaches in particular are so guilty of this (and I've been an OC for my whole coaching career, so I'm in the "guilty" column). Coaches seem more concerned with trying to "dazzle" everyone and baffle 'em with their BS that they forget all of the other important elements. My stomach turns in knots everytime I read one of these threads that's like, "Coach, we want to run a pistol single-wing Veer Jet Bubble series with a reverse option thrown in for good measure, after a sequenced shift and stemming of key personnel! It will give us the edge we need to survive."

(Although, defensive guys, you're not much better, with your tendancy to dress things up and claim them as new and revolutionary when it's the same basic crap people have been running for 30 years...but now you call your DE a "Minotaur" and your Strong Safety a "Slayer"...YIPPEE!)

Nobody needs to be worried about being the next super-genius football guy who comes up with the next revolution / evolution of the game. Honestly, that should be the last thing on our minds. I think at this point, we would be much better served trying to teach our kids to block, tackle, run, and catch better than they do now. Find better ways of teaching them to react to situations. Find better ways to prepare them for all the variables that they face both tactically and strategically. THAT's how you're going to win football games, in my humble opinion.

Huey- AWESOME post. Thank you for renewing my faith that football is still "football," with blocking, running, and tackling at it's core and that coaching is still "coaching" with fundamental instruction and mental / physical preparation still more important than what you can draw on the chalkboard.

Where can I get more information on this "Minotaur" defense? Sounds exciting! ;D

Seriously, there is innovation everywhere in the areas you guys speak of. They're just minor details though, not massive overhauls. Every time one of us coaches who have no money finds ourselves tying crap from the track shed together to create a drill, we're innovating. It may not be GOOD innovation, but for every 10,000 of us that have it fall apart, someone "invents" a new piece of equipment. Weight room innovations are constant, we have to be creative with what we've got to hit muscles from every angle. In coaching, you're running the 5-3 and you realize you've only got 3 defensive linemen so you innovate the 3-5. Then you give those two cats nicknames from an old mythology book and present it at a clinic. Sweet, sweet innovation...

Those Texas Tech drills for receivers look like they'd work for any system, they help players break routes and beat press coverage much better. Looks like it would work no matter what type of offense is in place, one that does control route or gets vertical, it does wonders for helping guys learn to fit tech to landmarks so they maximize the space on the field they make plays in.

Nothing really groundbreaking, just very simple quick direction/tech change adjustments for skill positions.

I think lochness' comment about attempts to "revolutionize the game are becoming self serving..." is quite accurate, and I am just as guilty. I still remember back in the late 90's when I thought "my" one back fly sweep scheme was quite original. I was an idiot!

I also like this post from Hugh Wyatt's board that goes back to what coachhuey said a few posts back...

The quote is - "I just finished reading Tony Dungy's book, and Coach Dungy speaks of the influence Chuck Noll - and Coach Noll's mentor, Paul Brown - had on him:

"Chuck Noll developed much of his coaching philosophy from Paul Brown, and I got mine from Chuck. I tell people that I'm from the Paul Brown school of coaching."

A major part of that philosophy, Coach Dungy stresses in his book, is

"Do the ordinary things better than everyone else."

He also quotes Dr. George Washington Carver along those same lines:

"When you can do the common things in life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world." end quote.

Its not about coming up with the Next big thing. It will always be about motivation, conditioning, and fundamentals! Coaches who forget that - and I have also been guilty of that - will reap what they sow.