Halftime adjustments

One important thing we do at the half is immediately get with the OL and ask them where they are lineing up. We keep track of the fronts in the booth but ask the line to get it from their point of view. We also ask them what they think we can run. Then make our adjustements and corrections if we need to.

If there's nothing big to fix, then fix the little things, and in high school football there are ALWAYS little things that need fixing.

Sometimes I think we overemphasize the word "adjustment" when we talk halftime adjustments. If things are going well, re-emphasize what you haven't seen yet, what could be coming, where you had your one breakdown, and stress that you have to execute fundamentals now to put the game away.

We were undefeated a year ago and were ahead at half by 3+ TDs in every game but the last 2. But you have to develop a sense of urgency in your kids--set the bar high--go for the shutout, try to hang 40 on the scoreboard, whatever. And that comes with stressing fundamentals, re-addressing the points of your gameplan, etc.

In addition to what has already been said, we look at the stats from first half with an eye toward who is making the tackle on our 3 top running plays. If there is a recurring theme, make an adjustment to get that guy blocked.

This is an excellent post. I agree if you are leading 14-0 then probably you've had some plays not work so far, maybe a stalled drive or two, etc. To me, halftime is really no different except that you get a few minutes to calmly talk to your other coaches, and then a few minutes to explain a few of these adjustments to your players, and then a few minutes to refocus on being fired up, motivated etc, rather than in the game where everything is kind of a blur.

If things are looking up on the whole then you should focus on what hasn't worked. Maybe your QB got knocked down after throwing a pass, what happened? What happened that last time you ran the sweep, why was it stopped for no gain?

I've never seen a perfect half of football, so, without coming across too nitpicky or not supportive enough, that should always be your goal.

Who's making the tackle and who's getting the yards.

Coaches,

I have a link to one of our booth charts (opponents offense) that is very simple and convenient, as well as provides quick, comprehensive information.

Each sheet shows a particular down and distance.

Then it provides a space for the offensive personnel. We break it down by 21, 11, 10, 21 slot, ect.,

Then there is a letter R or P. You circle if it was a run or pass.

Then S or W. I like strength to TE, so if the ball goes to TE side, i circle S. Goes away, I circle W. You can do it however you like.

The B or F. If ball goes to boundary I circle B, Field I circle F. Middle of field, I put a slash through the middle.

Zone is where the ball went and notes I can put anything I have time to write.

This takes practice. I like to use it when I leisurely watch games. The best part is that all you have to do is circle and then you can get a quick glance at what is going on.

Hope you enjoy.

www.savefile.com/files/474062

Be creative and you can design what you like to see the most.

IMO momentum is huge. Being able to control it is huge. It's crucial to address, regardless if we are up or down score wise. Keeping the intesity up, critical. We always are reminding our team that we punched the other team in the mouth so they are going to come out swinging at us. Sometimes this is an easy sell if its a good team we are facing, its a harder sell if they aren't good. Against poor teams, we talk about season goals and the need for us to continue to improve our team by not letting down.
As far as charting a lot of things, at a point, too much data is overload. Part of us not doing a lot of this also is we don't have enough quality staff to collect accurate data.
Offensively, we want to know how they are lined up in their front and secondary against our various formations, what they are doing with motion and what we can do to attack from the perspective of what we showed them in the first half, for example, we hammered veer and speed option good in the 1st half, now we are looking to see how we can attack off these looks, counter, reverse, etc. We try to have everything in our attack feed off something else in our attack so that we can constantly hit them at their weakest point.
Defensively, we look at what they are doing well and speculate as to what they are going to try to run off their successful plays based on scouting report, such as boot off of buck, etc. Our biggest thing on defense is to emphasis RUN AND HIT, as much as I X&O on offense, on defense I firmly believe in simplicity and aggressiveness, we want to be like 11 sharks in a feeding frenzy.