Questions to you PLAYCALLERS...

#1 - prepare throughouly before the game. know what you want to accomplish in the 1st half.

#2 - have a plan for the good and the bad. What are the things your opponent has done previously and why were they successful / not successful.

#3 - bottom line - what coverage does the opponent play well / does not play well (figure out how to get them out of their favorite / best coverage).

#4 - on game night FIND OUT WHO IS MAKING THE TACKLES....that will tell you where the holes are at in your offense / who is not doing their job on offense.

#5 - if it itches......scratch it.

I agree with what has been said above. Play-calling is more art than science, but I will say one of the biggest reasons you prepare is to inform your "gut." I was around a very good OC who was not consistent w/ his preparation. The games he did not prepare as well for he tended to fall back on just a few things he always relied upon, and we suffered. In the games where he was very prepared, it wasn't that he had it written on his card, but he knew what was going on to such an Nth degree, that when a situation presented itself, he immediately knew both off the top of his head and by gut what the correct call was.

As a corrollary, I find if you don't prepare as well for the game you tend to not actually call what you practiced this week, and instead just call a few of your old standbys.

What we do is use a tool box approach I got this from Kevin Donnelly when he was at Georgetown College(KY) what we do is before the season starts we put every defense we will see on paper and then decide what part of the defense is weakest and what are strengths are then we attack these weak parts......Then during the season we don't so much scout defensive alginment but more so there players and decide were we think we can get are mismatches...Our motto is don't bring a screw driver to do a hammers job.....example would be if we are getting a lot of 5-2 double eagle and they are cover 2 are toolbox says that we should run option, now there $ is a stud and he is flying in the box then we play pass or crack him make some type of adjustment....IDK if this is what you are looking for but are game plans are thought out in December and then we go based on match ups.......as far as a card we have that is divided into Runs, Passes, and Specials we then go from there......Now you are thinking what if you get sometype of exotic defense we don't we limit what they do by A) running option and B) going into hurry up.....Like i said its might not be the right way but its our way

Agree that it is based on the defense you will be seeing, including fronts, coverages, tendencies and personnel. But most importantly, keep it simple enough to use. I have on the front of my game plan that game's down & distance chart broken into the following categories: 1st&10; (I treat 1st&5 the same as second and short); 2nd&+7; 2nd&4-7; 2nd&-4; 3rd&+7; 3rd&3-7; 3rd&-3; Inside the +5; Inside the -5; 2 pt. conversion; gadget plays; Cover 2 pattern combos; Cover 3 pattern combos; and man beater. I try to keep only 3-4 runs and 3-4 passes in each category. On the back, I have a 2 lists of plays that I think will work if they make what I think are the 2 most likely adjustments to our game plan (for example, changing the fronts or coverages, or blitzing). Also on the back, I have a list of our entire offensive menu in case they adjust in a way I hadn't anticipated.

Hope this helps.

know what defenses will play vs certain formations

call plays based on those defenses from those formations

I have been on again off again with this, but when I feel I can do it justice time-wise, I script the first 15 plays of the game, adjustable to situation. In knowing basically what the opponent is giving us, I want to dictate our game plan to him, not the other way around, and I want to set up certain things with our bread and butter. Now, there are coaches out there good at shooting from the hip and remembering things on spur of the moment, but in the heat of the battle I don't always think those things through. If the basic game plan can be executed in the first few series, then making game adjustments is easier as the game progresses. The only times we would go off script is, again, situational - for example, we break a big gainer to their 4 yard line on the first play from scrimmage, then my second down play action pass off veer option may not be the best choice. Otherwise, when its scripted it happens, for better or worse.

We ue a scrpt asimiliar to Tog's. Veyr detailed.We normaly list any new formatiosn, and plays in our first 15. Sow e can see what the defense does against them. This way we know as a staff whether to scarp them if it's not what we wanted or to keep it if what they agve us is what we wanted.

So much goes into designing a game plan and executing it on game day. It all obviously starts with studying as much film as possible and scouting. We have all the Landro stuff and the Digital Scout stuff, but to be honest, even as a relatively young OC, I don't find any of that useful. What we do is this:

RUN GAME:

Our Legal-sized sheet has 2 sides. On the first side, I have a hole-hit chart for our base run plays, sectioned by series (ie: Belly Series, Lead Series, etc.). We spend a LOT of time determining what formations and motions are best to run out base plays out of. We don't have a ton of plays, but we are very multiple, and we try to figure week-to-week which formations give us the best advantage in the run game.

On the back, we have all of our little boxes, which pretty much separate the menu of plays on the front into situational categories. We have boxes for goal line, we may have a box for a specific series of plays we want to set up from the same formation, we'll have a box with plays that exploit our best runner, if we know they run a very different front from their base D from time to time, we'll have a box of run plays to call against that look, we'll have a box of misdirection plays...you get the idea. For down-and-distance, we only look at 3rd down. We look at 3rd and short, 3rd and med, and 3rd and long. I used to put all the situations on there, but it really was useless and I never looked at it.

PASS GAME:

On the front, under the hole hit chart, we have our passes broken down into boxes for playaction, quicks, dropbacks, and rollouts / waggles / boots. We do the same thing here as in the running game, listing all of our base plays out of the 1 or 2 formations we feel are best this week. We then have similar (although fewer) boxes on the back side to talk about situations.

Then, in general, we have a box for 2 min offense, 4 min offense, 2 pt conversions, and my scripted first 10 plays. We do exactly what these other coaches say about the scripted plays. We script them out, usually with very specific formations and motions to determine what the defense is trying to show. We'll stick to the script as long as the situation allows for it.

That's pretty much it. 80% of what I call is gut.

Coach Yeoman said time after time that their (Houston's) game plan was built on finding one guy on the defense - DT, DE or LB as knighter said, or maybe a DB a la coachveer - that they could beat and work on him.

Dang Tog, my head hurts just looking at all that lol! Generally speaking, I'm with the take what the defense gives you, or exploit mismatches you've found by scouting or by probing the defense early in the game and really "know" your own offense. What do you expect from the play you call? Is it designed to gain 3-4 yds normally or have "big play" potential? What are my "go to" plays, that the players can execute properly "most" of the time? Something else that comes into play, are what risks are you prepared to take? 2nd and 5, to use your example, do you try for the 3-4 yds leaving a 3rd and very short, or use this as a opportunity to go for the "homerun", risking a 3rd and 5? Just some stuff to think about, los!

Nice job explaining that Togster, comprendo! But it was close, lol, nearly had a brain overload!