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Post by 44dlcoach on Jan 3, 2015 21:22:30 GMT -6
I think these games are one of those things that you can look at objectively and say that you'd rather not attend, but if you got the actual offer it's probably really hard to say no to.
We got invited to a pre-season "event" type of game this year. One of the "perks" is that we got to play an additional game, we didn't have to remove a game from our schedule to add this one, and we got to start our padded practices two weeks earlier than everybody else in our state. The game was going to be on regional or national tv, everything was paid for, etc. we were all for it. The reality was that spent 5 days away from home, got home Sunday night and had to go right into game planning for a game the next week, and by the end of the season we had been in full pads for 18 straight weeks. I know these are "first world" problems and some people don't want to hear complaining about it, but that is a heck of a grind of a season.
There is talk about whether or not we'll get invited to this event again next year, and it would almost be more of a relief if they offered the spot to somebody else. That right there would cut two weeks of padded practices off our season and put a scrimmage in place of an extra game.
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Post by 44dlcoach on Nov 25, 2014 20:56:20 GMT -6
We come in about 8:30, go to about 10:15. Like others have said, there will be more family members around than usual, and we usually have some parents serving some scrambled eggs or something to the kids afterwards. Biggest thing to me is that I always want to stress to the kids that there aren't many teams still practicing on Thanksgiving, enjoy that you've had the kind of season that lets you be one of those teams.
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Post by 44dlcoach on Oct 23, 2014 22:04:25 GMT -6
I don't know a ton about sports science, so this may be absolutely refutable by somebody who does, but my observation is that it's impossible for us to get to game speed in practice. Kids might try their butts off but their bodies just don't seem to respond the way they want. Best practice by far is Wednesday for us every week, then on Thursday it looks like they are trying to drag their bodies through a practice before looking full speed again on Friday. Again, purely my observation but this is the way it has been on every team I've ever coached whether we were young or experienced, self-motivated or not, "tough" or "soft", etc. I'd actually say this effect has been more pronounced on some of our best players over the years, who have literally taken an entire week to get their body to cooperate with what they were telling it to do.
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Post by 44dlcoach on Oct 14, 2014 19:20:50 GMT -6
We are in the highest classification in our state. Our league goes like this:
Us: 14 years (HC was an assistant for 5-6 years before that) Team A: 5 years (replaced a guy who was there for 30+ years, HOF coach) Team B: 12 years Team C: First year (replaced a guy who got fired after 3 years and 1 win, who replaced a 1 year interim coach. Before that they had the same coach for about 20 years.) Team D: First year (replaced a 5 year guy) Team E: First year (replaced an 8 year guy who moved to another state to take a job in their highest classification.)
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Post by 44dlcoach on Sept 22, 2014 21:18:56 GMT -6
Not something we've ever done, though a couple of times a year we put the second team skill players in with the first team OL for one series, then bring in the second OL. Sometimes it's hard to even get a play off with the end of the bench OL, so it's nice for those second team skill guys to get a series like that sometimes, especially if the backup QB is a junior we are trying to develop.
We're in kind of a weird situation in that typically the only team we play that can blow us out happens in either a state championship or state semi-final game. We've taken some one-sided losses in those games but I've never felt upset about the way the other team played. One year they end up putting their starting offense back in in the fourth quarter to run out the game when they are up by 40+ and our newspaper tried to make a big deal out of it, but it never crossed my mind to be mad at them for it. When you take a 40+ point butt kicking I think you should focus on what you need to work on rather than what the other guy should be doing with his program.
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Post by 44dlcoach on Sept 15, 2014 21:27:58 GMT -6
We still do it in individual at least once a week, but in a very controlled situation. The running back doesn't get a two way go, we know before the snap if he is going to the defender's gap, or if he will go to the other side of the blocker so we can work on crossing a blocker's face to get in on a tackle. The RB waits for the defender to get his work in against the blocker before he runs, and the tackle part of it is at about 3/4 speed. Really just using it as a chance to rep the technique of ripping off and making a decent tackle immediately after getting off the block.
We used to do a full speed version of the drill similar to what others have described one time within the first day or so of pads, but didn't do it this year and I'm glad we didn't. Felt like we always came out of that day with one or two kids fighting through a rolled ankle for the first few weeks of the season.
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Post by 44dlcoach on Aug 14, 2014 18:52:02 GMT -6
Never seen somebody get hurt by a legal cut block. I'd probably ask the opposing coach before hand because of the stigma that seems to follow it and I wouldn't want their players or coaches to get all bent out of shape over it and have the thing devolve into something less productive than it should be.
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Post by 44dlcoach on Aug 2, 2014 18:20:29 GMT -6
I understand why it has to happen initially, but the thing that drives me nuts is having to go down to the district building every year and paying to get fingerprinted. Do these things change year over year? Are my fingerprints different from the ones they have on file for the previous 10 years? Or is this a fundraiser for the district?
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Post by 44dlcoach on Jul 3, 2014 12:52:47 GMT -6
We script our individual time, but really all the HC is looking for is something he can put on the practice plan he is handing to the JV and Frosh coaches, so they can see what drills the Varsity is doing and hopefully copy those. We are in a "big" program where Frosh, JV, and Varsity are three different levels with three different coaching staffs that conduct separate practices, so putting the drill work on the practice plan is more to help tell the younger level coaches what drills we want during individual time.
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Post by 44dlcoach on Jun 30, 2014 22:31:53 GMT -6
We script every inside run, 7 on 7, and team period, and usually will script a blitz pickup period on offense or a special period where we are working against a teams best run concept/play action off that concept on defense. I'm responsible for organizing the scout defense, and usually feel like I've got a pretty good idea of what the offense expects to see against certain formations, what they are really worried about on certain run plays and want to make sure they see, etc. by Wednesday, and could probably give a good scout look without a script, but how many reps would get wasted on Monday-Tuesday if we didn't have a scout script?
Defensively I don't see the value in not having it scripted either. How do I know that we saw enough reps of a certain check against a certain formation if we are just winging it? How do we work on the defenses we call in a given situation versus what the opposing offense runs in that situation? I worked as an assistant on a team that didn't script defensive practice at all, and I never felt like we were prepared, we spent a lot of practice time asking kids what they saw and arguing about conflicting responses, etc.
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Post by 44dlcoach on Jun 28, 2014 13:49:22 GMT -6
I really don't understand the difficulty in this read step discussion. If your team is going to read linemen, then basically at a 7 on 7 you are going to tell them one of two things in my mind. Either, a) imagine that the guy you would be reading gives you a pass read, while you make your read steps, then get into your pass responsibility, or, b) imagine that this is an obvious passing situation, and get to your pass responsibility immediately on the snap.
I would hope that our defense is going to put the other team in an obvious passing situation several times per game, and that practicing those conditions in the summer would have some carryover to the season.
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Post by 44dlcoach on Jun 23, 2014 20:35:43 GMT -6
Turns out our rule is that 1 play is considered a "game", and you are only allowed one "game" per week, so playing JV and Varsity isn't an option. We finished up a padded camp last week, and we got this kid some reps against some opposing teams' starters, he's definitely not a JV player, and is already our best non-senior LB. I'm positive now that he'll get substantial playing time on special teams and defense for us, but barring injury I seriously doubt he'll be a full time starter on defense.
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Post by 44dlcoach on Jun 14, 2014 20:36:48 GMT -6
For clarity's sake we have guys who can punt, and we have a guy who can kick PATs that will be playing varsity this year. But nobody who can kick touch backs, and if this kid is up he is a better punter and a more accurate kicker than any of the other options, so he'll definitely start there.
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Post by 44dlcoach on Jun 12, 2014 21:39:00 GMT -6
I've got two stories on this topic, and thought the admin got it right once and wrong once. Once had a kid get an anonymous picture of him turned in that was literally on crinkled up printer paper like the person was just walking around with it stuck in their pocket, and sure enough the kid got suspended over the contents of the picture, though it was clear that he was much younger when the picture was taken.
A few years later a baseball player at our school got caught drinking or smoking or something after his junior baseball season, so he decides that he will come out for football and serve his two week suspension during football so he'd be ready for the start of baseball. Admin figured out the plan and decided that no, his suspension wouldn't be served in football, he was suspended to start the next baseball season. I didn't think that the County School District code of conduct allows for that, but I'm not positive. BTW kid quit football as soon as he heard that the suspension was following him to baseball season regardless.
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Post by 44dlcoach on Jun 12, 2014 19:33:13 GMT -6
If our kid ends up really preferring to play JV, we will let him play JV, though I have to say that it would impact my evaluation of him moving forward regarding how much faith I'll put in him. The reality is that we'll do everything we can to make this an easy decision for him and make him want to stay up.
To his credit, he understands that there are no games for the next 10 weeks so there's no downside in him staying with Varsity right now, and he is doing everything he can to learn the scheme and play the position the way we want it done.
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Post by 44dlcoach on Jun 8, 2014 20:56:02 GMT -6
Thanks for the feedback so far, I lean towards keeping him up and think that it will help his development to play against the better competition every day in practice and in the games, but I coach the defense too so maybe I just secretly want him around to kick touchbacks.
A couple other things if it changes anybody's opinion:
I'm not talking about 12-15 pity reps to appease the kid at the end of the game, he would be the primary backup at his position, and that is how much a kid in that type of position on the depth chart can expect to play for us.
We run the same scheme on our sub-varsity levels as our Varsity levels, but we obviously run more stuff on Varsity, and we don't practice together so the stuff he would be practicing would be somewhat different but not much if he wasn't with the Varsity.
We're fortunate to be in a position as a program where we win a lot, at all three levels. The kid was part of a freshman team that didn't have a single close game last year, and the varsity made it to the state championship game, so changing culture isn't really a factor.
One concern I have with the kid is that he has always been the stud in his class, but it looks to me like it has had more to do with early physical development than anything else. There are kids in his class that absolutely outwork him in the weight room at this time, and I wonder if allowing him to play another year where he is going to be a stud whether or not he puts in the effort we would like may actually hurt him in the long run, as opposed to forcing his hand to either lift at what we would consider a "varsity level" or get passed up.
Maybe that's grasping at straws to support keeping him on Varsity, but we have a great weight room culture and every year there are a few kids who were good JV players that never play another down because they don't want to be a part of that culture in the weight room, and if this guy is one of those kids I'd rather find out sooner than later.
I believe that our rules for at both levels have to do with total quarters played as well, that is a good suggestion and may be a good backup plan, thanks for the suggestion.
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Post by 44dlcoach on Jun 8, 2014 12:57:50 GMT -6
A couple of facts to outline the situation first: Ours is a relatively big program with three levels: frosh, JV, and Varsity. Usually between 45-55 kids on Varsity.
JV is almost entirely made up of sophomores, occasionally some first year players who are juniors will play at that level.
Varsity is typically juniors/seniors, though we tend to have 2-3 sophomores in the mix to play varsity each year.
JV games are played on Thursday, it is not a situation where we could dress a kid for the varsity game on Friday then play him in the JV game on Saturday if he didn't get a certain number of reps.
So here's the situation we find ourselves in. We have a sophomore who is one of the best players in his class, plays RB and LB, and also kicks. If he played JV he would certainly play both ways and be on the field for probably about 80% of the plays. If he played varsity he would absolutely be our starting kicker/punter and would have a role on special teams and probably play 12-15 snaps a game defensively.
We've moved the kid up for the time being to try to get him coached up on what we're doing on Varsity, and since there isn't a game for a few months have no intention of him going back down to JV at this time. But the kid is in a little bit of a panic because he is used to playing all the time, and playing both ways, and right now we've told him we want him focusing on LB. The main contribution he would make to our Varsity team would definitely be as a kicker, as he can consistently kick touchbacks on kickoff and we don't have somebody else who can do that.
We haven't quite decided yet on how to handle the situation if/when the kid asks back down to JV if he isn't satisfied kicking the ball and having a "roll player" roll on Varsity, so I'd like to hear what thoughts you guys on how you would handle it or present it to the kid. My initial reaction is that when that happens there is going to be a discussion about putting the good of the team above his own preferences, but at the same time I can see the perspective of the kid not wanting to be moved up to stand and watch 75% of the game.
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Post by 44dlcoach on May 7, 2014 21:40:57 GMT -6
At our school if you don't have a 2.0 based on the last 9 quarter's report card, you cannot be on the team. If you are eligible to start the season they check grades every 3 weeks and any kid with an F gets a week to get it up or they are suspended for the next week. If it isn't up after two weeks they are removed from the team.
Kids are allowed to use summer school classes to up the GPA to become eligible for the fall semester.
I have to say, from a purely football perspective this has not hurt our program. The guys who we've counted on have always gotten to that 2.0 mark through summer school or makeup work arranged with their teachers. I don't exactly agree with the rule, but it's been in effect here for about 7-8 years and we have never lost a player that we were legitimately counting on due to not getting a 2.0. It is entirely possible that we lost kids as freshmen who didn't come back to football that could have developed into players, but who knows?
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Post by 44dlcoach on May 5, 2014 21:31:30 GMT -6
I think fantom's point is an excellent one in this discussion. I don't think any of us would honestly be shocked to hear that somebody like Junior Seau, just as an example, shows CTE. The guy played an incredibly violent game against the best players in the world for years and years, of course he is going to show symptoms of repetitive blows to the head.
How does that correlate to somebody who plays 4 years of high school LB where the majority of his reps came against a scout team guard that probably looks like a glorified turnstyle on most plays?
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Post by 44dlcoach on Jan 9, 2013 22:35:57 GMT -6
I think there is a big difference between communicating enough with the coaches to know who knows their stuff, and attaching your name and win-loss record in your signature so everybody knows how well your stuff works.
I don't know coachd5085's name or where he coached. I know generically that he at some point coached at the 1AA level. I also know from reading his content, this is a guy who knows what he's talking about, and whether I agree with what he posts or not, I know it is worth reading and considering. I had decided that fantom knew what he was talking about and his posts were must-read material long before I knew the school he coached at and the success they had. I also can infer from some of the posts of guys like Duece and Brophy that they've at times been in situations that didn't have a great W-L record, but the quality of the content they post is good enough that they don't need to throw a W-L record on it for it to be seen as good stuff.
I've been a part of a board before where a lot of posts turned into "well NFL Team X did it this way when they were winning superbowls with Coach Y so that's the way it is." That forum sucked. This is a forum where I feel the content speaks for itself and I hope that doesn't change.
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Post by 44dlcoach on Nov 27, 2012 23:52:55 GMT -6
You have to have great facilities, decent talent, and at least three types of coaches. A motivator, a teacher, and someone who will murder you with X's and O's. When you combine those, you get Nick Saban. At the HS level I think that great facilities are overrated. I think that you need adequate practice facilities and a weight room but you can have a great program without great facilities. By and large I would agree. We have a decent weight room, but our practice and game fields are both terrible, and we manage to win a lot of games in our area each year. Of course there is a private school in our state with literally tens of millions of dollars worth of athletic facilities and no "enrollment zone", which attracts all of the best players and nobody can compete with, but that's not an apples to apples comparison for most of us.
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Post by 44dlcoach on Oct 23, 2012 19:14:47 GMT -6
So we have clinched our seed in the playoffs, there is really nothing that can happen this week that will change it. Was wondering what your thoughts are on how to approach the last regular season game, which is "meaningless" with regards to standings.
My thoughts are that we obviously don't want to get anybody hurt, but this is a physical game and sometimes things happen, the kids only get so many of them in their lives, and these aren't professionals who can turn it on and off. So I'm of the opinion that the standings don't matter, you treat every game the same, and play the game deciders until the game is decided, as I've heard somebody on here put it, but was curious how others felt.
As an aside, I have no intention of trying to influence how my program approaches the week, I'm not here looking for affirmation or anything, just genuinely curious how others feel. Thanks in advance.
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Post by 44dlcoach on Oct 7, 2012 20:31:36 GMT -6
We had something somewhat similar come up this year. Kid that was a starter, probably the best DL in the area, but happens to be one of the best wrestlers in the nation too. He was in a situation where he was going to be invited to official visits that would cause him to miss a few games and "didn't want to put the team in that position" so he was going to quit.
We told him that we'd rather have him for 7 games than 0, and that we were sure that the team would understand the situation he was in. There was no plan to suspend him for the following game if he missed a game or anything like that, but we were being given plenty of advance notice to plan for it. Turned out he was more worried about getting hurt and missing part of wrestling season, so he ended up quitting anyway.
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Post by 44dlcoach on Sept 20, 2012 23:13:20 GMT -6
The problem with using "win" as the goal is that sometimes (most of the time), that is out of the hands of individual players. We try to focus on the things that individual players can control that add up to wins, such as "did we line up correctly, were we 100% with our checks, did we take on blocks with the correct shoulder, did we fit in the correct gap, did we block the correct defenders, did we make the correct reads", etc. Those are things that players can control, that most of the time determine who wins and loses.
If you just use "win" as the goal, how do you react when you play like crap but the team you are playing is so bad that you win anyway? Or how do you react when you are making legitimate progress toward becoming a good team, but your opponent that week was simply better than you?
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Post by 44dlcoach on Aug 1, 2012 23:18:00 GMT -6
A couple years ago we moved to putting our entire team into our inside run period, so I guess its just a "run period" now, rather than an inside run period. Offensively we are a spread team, and we use our receivers a lot as ball carriers, throw bubbles screens based on pre-snap leverage, etc. so they all are able to get good work out of that period. Defensively, it is nice to get the corners involved in secondary force and making sure that they don't give up the sideline if a ball bounces, or take the proper pursuit angle on the back side of a run play.
One thing that is worth considering in our position is that most of our WRs and DBs practice only one side of the ball, so they still end up with plenty of individual time during the week, so putting them into the inside run period doesn't hurt. If their individual time was more limited, maybe that time would be better spent working with their position coaches.
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Post by 44dlcoach on Jul 15, 2012 20:16:29 GMT -6
We go full-team full speed once during the week, but we usually mix in one full speed blocking and tackling drill each day also. Everything else is thud tempo, guys get tackled to the ground every now and then but it's a pretty quick whistle.
After 2 a days we have one full speed, full team period each week, the full speed tackling drills are scrapped after that first week.
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Post by 44dlcoach on May 11, 2012 20:14:26 GMT -6
My kids have always looked a lot more competitive and played a lot harder when they knew what they were doing as well. When I was calling too much crap and they didn't know what they were doing, they looked timid and lazy.
Kids want to compete, and when they know what they are supposed to be doing they will do it hard. When they aren't sure they'll do it timid and look like crap, so I'd say establish what you're going to be and get really good at it, especially in the early stages of building the program.
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Post by 44dlcoach on May 5, 2012 17:47:18 GMT -6
My highschool HC is 100% the reason I got into coaching, still work for him. His first two years as the HC were my junior and senior year, won 3 games the first year and 4 the second. We talked all the time about turning the program around and getting it in the right place, and I still wanted to be a part of that goal after I graduated.
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Post by 44dlcoach on Mar 30, 2012 2:04:35 GMT -6
I used to feel a lot of pressure early in my career, but looking back I think it was just nervousness and a lack of self-confidence. I was constantly concerned about not wanting my group to get outplayed and not being the one that let the program down or didn't have his guys ready to play.
As the years have gone on a little bit and I've been able to establish my own philosophy and get more comfortable with how we teach what we do, I really don't feel much pressure, now it's just a matter of trusting the process and the teaching progression and trusting that the kids will do what you've trained them to. I know that by the time that ball is kicked off, I've done probably about 90% or more of what I can do to impact the outcome of the game, so why freak out about it.
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Post by 44dlcoach on Jan 3, 2012 21:12:09 GMT -6
To me the value in it is not in giving a percentage grade, but the opportunity to write down feedback on each play for each player in my position group. This way I can discuss the issues with them after the film, and I don't run the risk of missing something with one person in my group because I was discussing something another player in my group was doing on a specific play.
Of course, there is no guarantee that the player is actually reading the feedback, but it's pretty easy to tell by striking up a conversation with them about the general feedback they were given.
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