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Post by spreadattack on May 18, 2015 16:37:05 GMT -6
Agree with posters above that's it's not inherently good or bad, though thinking it's inherently good might be dangerous. Football (and really, hard work) is not for everyone, though if kids are quitting because you're being unreasonable or unfair is not a good recipe for the program. And as windigo points out, sometimes you can think you're being reasonable but there are issues unique to a kid that make it unfair to him, and a little patience might draw out a special player and a kid who can mature.
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Post by spreadattack on Apr 23, 2015 20:12:16 GMT -6
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Post by spreadattack on Apr 21, 2015 9:12:25 GMT -6
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Post by spreadattack on Feb 27, 2015 9:11:13 GMT -6
James Light is a good guy and I think he was doing good work with his site, but the reality is I saw a lot of stuff on that site which had been shared with me by others only on the promise that I not share it. Right or wrong, there was bound to be blow-back.
Now, eventually the networks/conferences might do something like what the NFL has done with all-22, but for now all of that stuff is intellectual property they own. This is one reason why with my site and works I always try to be sure to "transform" the work into something original -- an article, a video clip that isn't just someone else's video, etc -- because then it becomes an original work and not just posting something owned by someone else.
There are good questions asked when people point out that there's something weird about the fact that the public (coaches, fans, etc) don't get to watch the film but their opponents do, but that's also their prerogative with video, materials, etc owned by someone else.
I have always tried to be very careful with my work that I don't publish things that could be seen by the coaches themselves as competitively hurting them, or even a gray area. It's not worth it. And I can say I've had blowback from coaches who confused what I do with what some of the more recent sites have done with just dumping information on the internet wholesale, and I had to point out I don't do that and they softened up (and then shared info). I'm not saying this is a good way to be but it is reality.
Information travels a lot faster on the internet now, but it's also still a game built on relationships and trust (not to mention a little paranoia). And keep in mind too that if the conferences/schools decide to put the all-22 out there they still won't want websites publishing it elsewhere, because they will want you to pay for it.
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Post by spreadattack on Feb 10, 2015 11:42:50 GMT -6
Well the question was what will be big "Trends." There are "old" offenses and defenses that will remain successful because of the quality of the coaches running them, the uniqueness of the schemes compared to what else they see and the quality of the kids. But for something to be a trend (which is neither good nor bad, it is just something that happens) there usually needs to be some "new" wrinkle, whether that it's a combination of things previously done or an old attack with a few new wrinkles, etc.
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Post by spreadattack on Feb 10, 2015 11:23:38 GMT -6
It's true that things are cyclical but that's not totally true. When concepts go away coaches do not really forget how to stop them, but that means when they come back they look a little different than before. Shotgun, spread formations, option football, power football, heavy fronts, rotating coverages, shifts, tempo, etc -- these things have been around for decades and in some cases for over 100 years, and none really go away and they all keep coming back, though slightly different. What I can guarantee you is the offense or defense of the 50s or 70s won't come back verbatim, but there might be some new spin on it that makes it modern, though the principles will be old. If it was just as simple as lining up in an old offense or defense then everything would be easy.
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Post by spreadattack on Jan 13, 2015 11:00:17 GMT -6
I felt like last year's coach's room was a little more technical. ESPN kind of doesn't know how to serve multiple masters with something accessible for fans but also being the reason why you have coaches on there -- to talk the ins and outs.
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Post by spreadattack on Jan 5, 2015 10:14:49 GMT -6
There are lots of coaches I'd love to get a beer with and talk football, team building, leadership.
But the real question is: Which coach do you want to have *ten* beers with?
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Post by spreadattack on Nov 24, 2014 8:46:36 GMT -6
Some of the older contributors here may remember Hawke, His name was Tom Krempasky and he was a mentor and friend. He died today. I'm going to miss him a lot. I remember Hawke from the pre-Huey days (Coach Toby's I think?). Was a real mentor and shared a lot of info with a young guy that didn't know much. He will be missed, and like a lot of coaches on this Board and others had an influence probably beyond what he even realized.
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Post by spreadattack on Nov 24, 2014 8:43:27 GMT -6
My takeaway from this quote has always been that coaching is about a lot more than just Xs and Os. Whether you have great talent or you don't, your job is to get your players (Jimmys and Joes) to play as hard and as well as their ability allows. That means focusing on technique, fundamentals, discipline, effort, training and culture.
You can certainly win without talent but it won't be because you drew up a fancy pass play or exotic blitz. It'll be because you've built a real team and your players are getting the most out of their ability, and playing hard and sound. The scheme stuff can help at the margins -- and the thing with scheme is you need to sort out your scheme in order to isolate the fundamentals and techniques that will be important for you -- but it's not what decides most games. That said, scheme can decide games where everything else is evenly matched, which is rare, but also tends to show up in critical moments (playoff games, etc). That's why coaching is hard.
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Post by spreadattack on Sept 15, 2014 11:37:06 GMT -6
Watt is the real deal. I also liked this one he had a couple of months ago:
“When it comes down to that moment,” Watt says, “when it’s me against you, you know in your head whether you worked hard enough. You can try to lie to yourself. You can try to tell yourself that you put in the time. But you know — and so do I.”
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Post by spreadattack on Aug 25, 2014 10:39:57 GMT -6
If you're at a perennial power that has championship goals every year then obviously you want to talk up other teams and talk down your team in that they will need to compete, etc. That's pretty straightforward.
It's harder if you're not so good, as you need to recruit your hallways, and get enthusiasm and confidence up. Now you don't want to talk up kids and then they get slaughtered by some 120 person squad with 11 D-1 recruits, but it's hard.
It's also a situation where the local press might have their own angle and can take a few choice quotes and blow it into some kind of local splash thing. They are trying to sell papers
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Post by spreadattack on Aug 18, 2014 12:21:20 GMT -6
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Post by spreadattack on Apr 27, 2014 19:53:46 GMT -6
For what it's worth the Eagles under Chip Kelly have the day after games off (Monday) and then have their heaviest practice Tuesday with Wednesday being full go and then "glorified walkthroughs" on Friday and actual walkthroughs on Saturday.
I don't remember exactly what Oregon's practice weeks looks like.
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Post by spreadattack on Mar 31, 2014 13:36:04 GMT -6
You can get all that 4th down info for free online with the NY Times 4th down calculator, the Advanced NFL Stats site, and fotballstudyhall.com
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Post by spreadattack on Mar 6, 2014 9:36:14 GMT -6
Honestly I think you can go overboard on the buzz word stuff. Pretty soon everyone is saying the buzz word but forgets why. I get why people do it -- it's hard to get kids to remember much of anything -- but it often backfires.
Now, this is different than a specific coaching or technique point you talk about a lot, so it can be shortened in pressure situations -- "sink!" to an offensive lineman might be a bunch of coaching points you've repeatedly told him about sinking his hips and getting his hands in tight, or whatever. But buzz words for the sake of buzz words doesn't seem like it's leading to much.
I do kind of like what Chip Kelly does where he sort of combines the buzz word approach without just making them meaningless words by making little rhymes and mneumonics. An example is "Touchdown, first down, get down" is his coaching point for QBs who keep -- maybe it's nothing revolutionary (score if you can, if not get a first down, if you can't get a first down, get the heck on the ground) but anything that helps people remember. I seem to recall that John Wooden was great with little sayings like that that conveyed real teaching but were easy to remember.
But hey, whatever works for the kids.
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Post by spreadattack on Jan 15, 2014 11:21:22 GMT -6
On the living off campus thing, I think it depends on the school. Louisville is a "city university," and if you live off campus you basically live somewhere in the city. Compare this to some of the Big Ten schools like Purdue or Penn State, where if you live off campus you're practically still at the school because the entire town is a prototypical college town.
I haven't spent a lot of time at UT but I imagine Austin is kind of inbetween. There's a great surrounding area to the campus but Austin is a big city too, and you want your players connected to the program. This is especially true since college is not like the NFL where the players can just spend all day 7 days a week at the football facility.
For what it's worth, I'd also bet that UT's athlete dorms are pretty nice.
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Post by spreadattack on Jan 7, 2014 21:45:25 GMT -6
I'd like to see Spurrier on this
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Post by spreadattack on Jan 7, 2014 16:28:30 GMT -6
Surprised at the divergent opinions. I thought it was good, especially considering I've never seen another network try this before and even the participants didn't know what to expect.
I agree that there were too many cooks in the kitchen. I actually thought Luginbill did a decent job being a host -- you didn't really notice him much and I thought that was a good thing. To me Sumlin and Addazio made it worth watching. I am surprised people ragged on Spielman as much as they did as I thought he was pretty good, and they needed a defensive guy (Charlie Strong was going to be on it until he took the Texas job, and they replaced him with Chryst). I think Spielman would have been more tolerable had Millen not also been on. Millen got better in the second half but the entire first half he talked constantly, even cutting off the other coaches when they were speaking.
My guess is they included Spielman and Millen because some producer got scared that the coaches would use jargon that needed to be translated to viewers, but at least Sumlin and Addazio never had that issue. Addazio in particular was fun when he got fired up over OLine play.
It certainly was an improvement over the regular way to watch a game, at least as a changeup. For as much as people rag on ESPN, they did actually try a novel concept -- in a rather big game -- of having a bunch of football people talking about actual football.
I did think to myself that if they wanted to really capture the vibe of coaches watching a game, they needed a lot more beer, hot wings and skoal.
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Post by spreadattack on Dec 31, 2013 11:00:52 GMT -6
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Post by spreadattack on Dec 23, 2013 11:22:21 GMT -6
1) As a relatively new Dad (3 month old), I will steal the line someone said to me, "It's the most amazing way to turn your life completely upside down." It's hard to describe but everything is different
2) Try to be home as much as you can, even if it means taking some work home. It's a little contrary to what people said above, but if you can watch some film or some other prep from home then do it rather than spending all hours at the office/facility. That said it is a challenge and you will find your schedule really shifts around.
3) Biggest advice is take advantage of every opportunity you can to let your wife get some sleep. She's going to be the one primarily dealing with baby craziness, especially if you're back at work, but if you can take a night shift or watch the baby while she takes a nap, particularly during the first few months, then do it. You'll make it up on the back end.
4) As someone else told me, "If you want to spend time with your young children, you have to do it when they are young." Enjoy it!
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Post by spreadattack on Sept 7, 2013 9:04:59 GMT -6
I have a vivid memory of playing in a game in high school and having the head coach completely chew out the offensive coordinator because, up 60-0 in the 3rd quarter, our third string scored on 60 yard run on an inside trap. The head coach told the OC the only play he was allowed to call was basically the fullback belly. On the first play of the next series the third string fullback broke off a 50 yard run on the fullback belly.
The head coach stared at him and the OC looked like he needed to go hide under the bleachers.
Sometimes there's just not much you can do. Sounds like you guys handled it the right way. It's what my dad used to refer to as an "uptown problem."
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Post by spreadattack on Sept 3, 2013 6:31:38 GMT -6
Having participated in a couple of these, the common threads for these teams are: - Teams with established programs These are the teams that have the little league teams running the same type plays as the HS. These teams have PE classes set up to work on football year around. These are the teams that we all geek over the facilities they have. These teams are consistent because of WHAT they do on a daily basis. -Teams with studs These are the teams that ALWAYS have a stable of DI recruits. Also, keep in mind that these games are an arm of the ESPN recruiting. These games serve as a way to show live 'highlight' video of the kids this service promotes. I didn't watch much of the action, but those of you that did; How many times were these things mentioned? number of offers graphics of commitments cut-a-ways to Luginbill so he could comment on a player This is all accurate. ESPN basically coordinates a lot of these "matchups," and a major driver of who they pick is what D1 athletes are on the teams, which means either they have previously identified studs or the team always has a stable of them. It's not exactly a coincidence that the team that did ESPN's "Hell Week" played in one of these games and has one of the country's top WR recruits.
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Post by spreadattack on Sept 3, 2013 6:23:47 GMT -6
As other say I tend to watch as a fan but keep my eyes open for interesting stuff. If it's a team I'm unfamiliar with I usually spend a little time to figure out the basic plan -- formations, fronts, etc. Replays I like to look for little things, usually OL or DL play, that maybe I missed live.
I also record games and will go through them. You can get through a game in 20-25 minutes and pick up some interesting stuff (to the extent you care). I think that's only really worth it if they already do something similar to you -- Air Raid or flexbone or whatever -- but even still it's not apples to apples, or if you're just a big fan of that team or know their coaches.
The NFL can be really boring to watch but the NFL Game Rewind package is pretty nifty. $60 for coaches film (overhead and end zone) of every game, organized by play and completely searchable by run, pass, player, etc. I don't recommend trying to scour that for stuff to implement, but I do think it can be useful in the offseason, especially if you're trying to put together maybe an example tape for your kids -- a particular blitz you like, or spill technique, or how to run a pass route. Overall play design not as useful.
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Post by spreadattack on Sept 3, 2013 6:13:05 GMT -6
The USMC guys also have specific training in these methods. I worry when an otherwise good football coach and good man thinks he needs to impersonate one of these guys. I'm all about football being about creating adversity to create a team and better men, but I worry whenever it's just High School Harry kind of power struggles. Football should be hard, but football practice should also be about football.
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Post by spreadattack on Aug 30, 2013 12:14:11 GMT -6
we had a kid quit this year becasue he made the first group...too much pressure. LOL! I have no idea how I would react to that. Better to find out in August than October, I guess...
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Post by spreadattack on Jul 15, 2013 6:33:07 GMT -6
There's a difference between dumb penalties and playing hard penalties. I don't know if anyone keeps track of the number of these (false starts, etc) but that might be useful to look at.
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Post by spreadattack on Jun 24, 2013 10:13:14 GMT -6
It's not amazing/end-all/be-all/change the world, but there's some decent material and I thought worth the $11.
The Petrino passing game one was solid, and I liked the Scott Shafer defensive videos as while they weren't super detailed they were fairly comprehensive in terms of a few different things and rules, etc for each.
I'd appreciate any recommendations.
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Post by spreadattack on Jun 21, 2013 6:08:54 GMT -6
I just signed up. Any suggestions for good videos on here?
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Post by spreadattack on Apr 25, 2013 15:56:34 GMT -6
I agree with everything fantom is saying. I do think part of getting the kids to believe in what they are doing is if you convince them you've got a few "wrinkles" to catch them off guard. Kids can get excited about that. If they sense you are junking everything you've worked on all year to do some brand new plan, then they just think you didn't know what you were doing all along (maybe true).
It's the old dilemma about the calculated risk.
But I think your larger point is this: There's a lot of fancy gameplanning or stat stuff you can try and do to give yourself that elusive "edge", but if you really want to beat a better team the thing that will work most in your favor is if your kids play your best game. And they will only do that by being well prepared, well coached, fundamentally sound, and ready to play, and that's best achieved by doing what you do and doing it well. And, from there, they have to get lucky. You can at least try and control the first part. Feel free to correct me if I have your point wrong.
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