|
Post by 44dlcoach on Dec 31, 2011 12:07:26 GMT -6
Had an assistant this year tell a parent "They take applications every year, put one in or shut the f*** up." Probably not a very good "company line", but sometimes effective.
To the question at hand though, I would support the staff and the playcall, whatever it was. Even if the parent is not a slappy, our coach spent a whole lot more time watching film, saw how we executed in practice all week, and spent a lot more time gameplanning than said parent. So I'm going to trust that their thought process was not to just call something for the sake of calling it, and that had they just called something different the result would have been different.
Also, as all of us who've made in game decisions know, it's easy to second guess with hindsight, but not quite as easy to make the call in the game, so I do everything I can to support the guys on the staff who put the time in and make those decisions.
I know that sometimes a call happens that makes you scratch your head, or that you feel you would have done differently, but I'm not going to put myself in the position to be a guy on the staff other guys think doesn't have their back or full trust. We constantly discuss callst that were made and those sorts of things internally, but publicly I'm going to give my guys nothing but my full support.
|
|
|
Post by 44dlcoach on Dec 16, 2011 21:14:50 GMT -6
What is the population of a D-3 school in northern CA?
|
|
|
quittng
Dec 6, 2011 22:26:01 GMT -6
Post by 44dlcoach on Dec 6, 2011 22:26:01 GMT -6
I would say this year I've changed my stance on this to give the kids the benefit of the doubt, and welcome them back after the season and let them earn there way back in the offseason. We had a guy who quit the team during the summer before his junior year last year who decided he wanted to come back for his senior year.
He got into our varsity lifting class and made some pretty good progress, but I was still of the opinion that somebody who had quit once would quit again, and didn't really pay much attention to him during summer weights. Then the morning of our first padded practice, he called the HC and said that he wasn't sure that football was for him. He ended up showing up for practice, but I assumed that it was just a matter of time before he quit again. It turned out that the reason he quit the year before and the reason he almost quit before this year was basically fear of failure, and not thinking he could compete with the rest of the guys on the team.
As the season went on, he made drastic improvements, to the point that he was our primary backup at his position and even held up fine during some playing time with the starters. At the end of the season he got up in front of the team, owned up to quitting the previous year, called it one of the biggest regrets he had, and thanked them for accepting him back.
I know for a fact that his senior season was a great experience for this kid, brought him closer to a bunch of different guys, let him be a part of something special, and helped him gain a ton of confidence. I'm not saying that all quitters turn out this way, or that a lot of them aren't turds who you are better off without, but a punitive policy probably would have driven this guy away, and you don't want to exclude kids from having those types of experiences based on a short sighted decision from a year prior, in my opinion.
|
|
|
Post by 44dlcoach on Jun 18, 2011 20:52:47 GMT -6
Around here there isn't any kind of 7 on 7 tournament, coaches just get together and go through a few series on each side, sometimes get a third team involved, etc., but nothing like what is being described in the thread.
I'm not a huge fan of 7 on 7 but I do see it's purpose. I think the "unsanctioned" scrimmage format is probably a lot more constructive than the tournament format though. It sounds like in some parts of the country the tournaments are more or less mandatory to participate in, which I would agree probably gets to a point of diminshing returns pretty quickly. And what does a lineman challenge consits of? Is it more or less a strongman competition?
|
|
|
Post by 44dlcoach on May 30, 2011 20:54:03 GMT -6
As far as upgrading is concerned, if you have the ability to pick the assistants (don't have to be a faculty teacher, etc.) I'd say hire former players, once enough time has passed to do so. They'll know how you want things taught and ran, and if they gave a crap when they played for you they'll probably still give a crap when they're coaching for you, and put in the work needed to become part of a high quality staff.
I work on a staff where the majority of the assistants played for the HC at one time, and there are very few issues with work ethic, not being able to tell somebody the truth to avoid hurt feelings, and all those little things that you always hear about that drag down staffs. Everybody knows each other, has for a long time, and has the same goals, so it works pretty well.
|
|
|
Post by 44dlcoach on Nov 4, 2010 22:08:37 GMT -6
A few years ago we quit doing the lineup, we told our kids to go find the guy or guys they played against and let them know you appreciate their effort in more detail than "good game". If we lose and the other team starts getting in a single file line then we will follow suit, but we always want our guys to specifically acknowledge the guys they played against.
We've had one issue in 4 years with trash talk, etc. and the guy on our team was a real A-hole who we probably should have done a better job of monitoring.
|
|
|
Post by 44dlcoach on Oct 30, 2010 12:06:25 GMT -6
Not related to the video, but relevant to the post I think:
A team in our region was winning by 4+ scores yesterday with the ball at the end of the game. Rather than taking a knee, they ran a play, and the ballcarrier broke his leg on the tackle, is going to be out for their playoff run. The kid was a defensive contributor, but not a starter on offense.
I don't know if I would classify it as a bonehead move to not take the knee in this situation though, since there was no risk of losing the game by not taking a knee, just the risk of that kind of freak accident happening. I've always thought that if the game is far enough apart to send in the seconds, you don't send them in to take a knee, let them run some plays.
How do other people approach that situation?
|
|
|
Post by 44dlcoach on Sept 15, 2010 18:54:48 GMT -6
Had a kid quit one time due to "lack of playing time". He was starting at LB and on most special teams. Really he thought he was some kind of amazing receiver even though he couldn't catch and he quit because he wasn't a starter there
|
|
|
Post by 44dlcoach on Jul 31, 2010 1:27:28 GMT -6
I may be wrong on this but I got the impression that Haynesworth has to run the conditioning test while others that showed up to offseason workouts do not.
Along the lines of knowing who is in shape and who isn't, does anybody administer a test like this to kids who are below a certain attendance figure for summer weights? Would it be a good idea, or does it open the door for too much mommy and daddy complaining that their son isn't being treated fairly?
|
|
|
Post by 44dlcoach on Jun 21, 2010 20:08:45 GMT -6
It's not that I feel it's especially important to "do well" at the camp from a "did we win that scrimmage" perspective, but I do think it is important that our kids go into the camp with some comfort level of our basic scheme so they can show the kind of football player they can be.
I'm sure we've all seen how timid and bad a kid can look when he is unsure of what he's supposed to do. By spending a few weeks in the spring installing our most basic stuff, we can spend the camp evaluating things like how physical a kid is, can he tackle, will he catch the ball when there is a chance of getting hit, etc. rather "how well does he know his playbook" which is what I think it would become if we didn't have those 10 spring practices to reinforce our base stuff on the field beforehand.
Like I said, if we didn't have a full contact component of our offseason immediately after the spring practices I think they would be more or less expendable, and basically just an extension of our summer weights program. But I do think there is some merit to putting our kids in a situation where they can be confident in their assignments at that camp and go out and play.
|
|
|
Post by 44dlcoach on Jun 21, 2010 0:13:50 GMT -6
We get 10 practices in the spring, no pads, no contact. We use that time to go over basic fundamentals and install our basic scheme, but then go to a full-contact college camp every summer, so the 10 non-padded practices are more valuable in preparing to compete at that camp than to our actual season I think.
If we didn't have the camp coming up right after that I would think we could easily do without the spring ball.
|
|
|
Post by 44dlcoach on May 29, 2010 2:03:59 GMT -6
On the subject of dictating the game, this to me is just one of those things that every single OC and every single DC in America says. And I don't know who's right and who's wrong or if anybody is right or wrong, but every good OC or DC I've ever spoken to feels that they are going to dictate the game.
|
|
|
Post by 44dlcoach on May 29, 2010 2:00:27 GMT -6
Would it make a difference if he then had two good FBs and not enough linemen? if he is a better fullback than your current fullback...you are waisting talent. all that is required for line play is effort and coaching. You cant teach hogs how to be deer. This quote doesn't make any sense to me. What if the current FB is one of your better players also? Wouldn't putting him on the sideline watching this new kid play FB behind a presumably crappier OL hurt the team more? If I have two guys who are, say, in my top 8-9 offensive players who play the same position, but one can play two positions and one can't it seems like a no brainer. Sorry kid #2 but you need to go play OL so we can put our best players on the field. Now, we don't know if the current FB is capable of playing another position from the OP, but it doesn't seem so. On another note, I don't know how many HS teams I've seen where a FB is truly more valuable than a good guard anyway, but it isn't many.
|
|
|
Post by 44dlcoach on May 23, 2010 15:15:09 GMT -6
Like mariner wrote, is there a reason some of those juniors can't just become varsity backups?
|
|
|
Post by 44dlcoach on May 23, 2010 13:41:51 GMT -6
I work for a CPA and like pmeisel says you can work around football season as a tax preparer. Sure stuff comes up every now and then, and I have missed three practices over the last two years because something all of the sudden needed to be done that day, but for the most part it's pretty flexible
|
|
|
Post by 44dlcoach on May 20, 2010 22:41:45 GMT -6
How much of this do you think can be attributed to fatigue? With so many players going both ways it seems entirely possible to me that guys start to wear down and then their focus wanes a little bit on offense and execution suffers.
This isn't a pitch to two-platoon or anything, but rather a thought that your "style" of defense might not have as much to do with it as it would seem at first glance.
I personally don't agree that you have to have an offense and defense that "match" each other. Good football is good football. I think the New York Jets ran the ball more than anybody in the NFL on offense last year and blitzed more than anybody on defense. They didn't decide that they were going to go with a "bend but don't break" defense to match their conservative offense, they lined up and played good defense, however that best fit their abilities. Likewise, they taylored the offense to the talents of their players, which in that case was a more conservative approach.
|
|
|
Post by 44dlcoach on May 13, 2010 21:07:03 GMT -6
You can't deduct time, and if you want to deduct job searching there are some rules involved, basically you have to be searching for a job in the same line of work, and you will only get a deduction if your expenses exceed 2% of your AGI, and you itemize deductions rather than taking the standard deduction.
If you want to see a list of expenses that are and aren't deductible, check out IRS Publication 529. Again, and I don't mean it to pimp my line of work, but if it is very complex these kinds of things are generally better handled by a CPA
|
|
|
Post by 44dlcoach on May 11, 2010 19:07:58 GMT -6
PM me if you need the name of a good CPA
|
|
|
Post by 44dlcoach on May 11, 2010 0:42:59 GMT -6
Airman, what's your point?
|
|
|
Post by 44dlcoach on May 9, 2010 21:05:41 GMT -6
We usually don't get to the point of running them for long as a "punishment" or anything like that, but we are lucky enough to have the numbers to replace people if it's only a couple individuals that aren't focused.
When we have that situation where things seem to snowball and we aren't getting good reps, we have told the kids to take a jog around the practice field and lets start over, but even then it's not really addressed like a punishment, more like the "reset button" analogy used earlier.
Edit: Unless we're on defense, whether it's right or wrong, and for whatever reason, when this sort of thing happens on defense it seems to stem more from a lack of effort than anything else, and we address it the way we address any lack of effort, which tends to be a little louder and a little bit less of the "let's take a deep breath and start over."
Not to say that we just scream and yell at the kids and think that "trying harder" will solve all our problems on D, we correct their mistakes and answer any questions they have, but there is a little bit shorter leash when it comes to the lack of focus on D.
Not designed to be a criticism of our offense, our offensive staff and defensive staff are largely the same, we just handle things a little bit differently on the two sides of the ball, which I think is the right way to do it.
|
|
|
Post by 44dlcoach on Apr 28, 2010 21:11:56 GMT -6
You were 9-0 or your team was?
|
|
|
Post by 44dlcoach on Apr 24, 2010 10:14:44 GMT -6
My two cents on benching a kid who is still better than his backup:
We had a senior free safety last year who was seriously underacheiving the first couple of games, but was still head and shoulders better than his backup. The problem causing his poor play was laziness in practice causing him to make mistakes in games. We made the decision that the way he was playing was going to cost us a game at some point anyway, so why not get it out of the way early, and we benched him.
The way we explained it to the player was that we refuse to be the type of coaches that let our talented players underacheive, and we'd rather hide you on the sideline than put you out there when you aren't playing the way you're capable of. We explained to him that simply being better than the guy behind you isn't good enough, and wouldn't be acceptable.
I'm not going to pretend it was some kind of old-school my way or the highway kind of speach, there was a decent amount of hand-holding involved too, about how for us to do the things we planned on doing we needed him playing his best, etc. but all that stuff was true and he was mature enough to understand where we were coming from.
So anyway, long story short he stands on the sideline more than usual one game and all of the sudden he's super coachable the rest of the season, performs well enough for our coaches to pick him as our defensive POY, and everything works out ok. Obviously that doesn't mean this will be the case with every player, but I would recommend not just "firing" the seniors when the time comes, but to put some of the ownership on them, "you're too good to play that way, and I'd be a crappy coach to let you do it." I'm sure not all, but maybe some will respond and you'll get some of your best players back on your side.
|
|
|
Post by 44dlcoach on Feb 22, 2010 0:19:42 GMT -6
I want to hear what you guys think about the value of playing quality out of state competition. if you had the choice between playing a preseason game against a local school that you are familiar with who you may have to play in the postseason, and getting on the bus to go play a quality team from another area, which do you prefer?
To clarify, you are a team that has league/state title aspirations, and the out of state team would definitely be the best team you would face during the regular season.
Do you think a tough out of state game gives you good preparation for potentially big games down the road against teams from another district/region in your state? Do you feel it's good to see a team that is "supposed to" beat you during the regular season, while the local team probably would not be expected to beat you? Or is the whole idea of facing a tough team in week 2 paying dividends in your 4th playoff game overstated? Would you be better served to see the potential playoff opponent early so you can see how you match up with them and what you may need to do better to beat them in the playoffs?
Curious to hear from those that have done it both ways and why they feel the way they do.
|
|
|
Post by 44dlcoach on Feb 15, 2010 23:18:27 GMT -6
KB was speaking at the Northern Cal all-sports clinic this year. I didn't check it out but one of our other coaches did. He said that they basically are just basing out of the BYU formation, getting an extra blocker out there to block for bubble screens, faking screens to the ineligible player and throwing deep, etc.
|
|
|
Post by 44dlcoach on Jan 12, 2010 0:43:35 GMT -6
I think camps are a great asset for our team, but that may be because we have a relatively young coaching staff (only 2 guys who have coached HS more than 5 years). We think camps are good for not only our kids, but for our coaches to be exposed to different things and come up with ideas of how to attack/defend things that we don't typically see. If we were a more experienced staff that might not be as much of a benefit to us.
That said, we are 1 of the top 2 programs in our area, we do camps and 7 on 7, the other team doesn't do either, so who can say for sure which is better or how much of an impact those things really have.
|
|
|
Post by 44dlcoach on Jan 4, 2010 18:46:58 GMT -6
The difference in amount of practice time is accounted for almost entirely by the varsity (and JV and extramural freshman) being excused from phys. ed. and having other accommodations to their schedule. For instance, they may be allowed to take examinations at times other than the other students, and facilities may be made available to them at times when they would be closed to other students. Nonsense. Maybe to an extent in college, but I've never seen anything even remotely close to that in HS
|
|
|
Post by 44dlcoach on Dec 27, 2009 18:06:15 GMT -6
I think I heard about it while reading a story about the A-11 a couple years ago.
|
|
|
Post by 44dlcoach on Dec 13, 2009 15:05:12 GMT -6
Can somebody explain how the multiplier works?
|
|
|
Post by 44dlcoach on Dec 12, 2009 16:50:53 GMT -6
We only have a couple in our state, but this year the large school state champ was a private school that had 8 DI seniors who just blew everybody out of the water all year long and it has started some debate about how "fair" it is for them to be playing the public schools.
Funny thing is, when they won it all 2 years ago it was their first time even winning their league in like 10 years, so while the playing field may not be "level", it's not like none of the public schools have a chance, so I doubt it gets much farther than discussion at this point.
|
|
|
NE Game
Nov 16, 2009 1:15:33 GMT -6
Post by 44dlcoach on Nov 16, 2009 1:15:33 GMT -6
If Norv Turner, Wade Phillips, Andy Reid, or Brad Childress made the same decision the media would fire them tomorrow. I thought it was a bad call, but you don't get to where the Pats are without taking some risks along the way, and they have more than earned the benefit of the doubt at this point.
|
|