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Post by rsmith627 on Feb 28, 2023 8:16:23 GMT -6
My brother lives in Arizona and the div.1 players in the Pheonix, Tempe, Mesa, etc. areas is impressive. In some cases you have to separate the quality in the large cities and surrounding areas from state's overall. For example in my state (MI) the Detroit Public and Catholic school leagues have several P5-DI recruits every year. Rest of the state not so much. The PSL and CHSL also typically do well in state playoffs including championship games. Even in those leagues though, there is a wide disparity. Right now in the Catholic League there's De La Salle, and then there's everyone else. I'm interested to see what Detroit Catholic Central looks like under some new direction, and OLSM, traditionally a power looks like they're starting to catch their stride finally after moving from the wishbone stuff they did forever to the air raid. PHSL has King and Cass, and then everybody else is pretty bad. I'm sure they have a prospect or two, but it isn't great football. OAA has a lot of prospects as does the MAC Red. Some very good leagues in this part of the state. I do think Michigan in general is pretty good in the midwest though. Not Ohio good, but there's some good ball happening here. Great commentary on needing to be able to separate the strength of larger cities from the state's overall.
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Post by rsmith627 on Feb 23, 2023 13:59:29 GMT -6
That year was soul destroying. The school day was over at 2:35 but we didn’t start practice until 3:30pm because that’s when the HFC was able to get there. I would just stare at the clock in my classroom like a prisoner on death row waiting for the hour of his execution. The big difference was, unlike the permanence of an execution, my torment was repeated each day until football season ended. 😂 There is NOTHING worse than working for a grinder who loses. Can confirm. Worked for a grinder and we went 1-10. We did meetings after practice every day, were in the office 4-5 hours on Saturdays after the kids left film. It was miserable. Contrast to where I'm at now. We walk off the practice field and leave, are trusted to do what we need to before the next day from home. We will group chat after everybody's kids are in bed about what we need to, but there isn't even an huge expectation that everybody participate in that. We are coming off a semi-final run this year, so not bad. F grinding for the sake of grinding. It's still just football at the end of the day.
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Post by rsmith627 on Feb 23, 2023 13:53:44 GMT -6
This one is incredibly common here in the mitten, including from some coaches.
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Post by rsmith627 on Feb 16, 2023 11:45:15 GMT -6
I like splitting them when possible as well. They're a big part of our passing game and need those skelly reps as well. See I got annoyed because at a previous school we almost never sent our backs into the pass game, and they'd just be halfassed ghost blocking guys in skelly. Complained for a couple weeks until we built in a group blitz pickup period 1-2 days a week. That's frustrating. Our RB led our team in reception yards last year, and while I don't think we'll have quite those numbers this year they'll still be an integral part about what we do. Hate the half assed pass pro stuff lol. Love blitz pickup period, and so do our backs. They've made being physical a part of their identity as a group and I love it.
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Post by rsmith627 on Feb 16, 2023 9:51:26 GMT -6
For sure true of RBs. Depending on the week one of my indy periods is spent with the OL working blitz pickup, which is important for us. I did like that though because it eliminated some redundancy and some of those diminishing returns you mentioned. Ball security and our reads in our zone game are important, but you can only do that so much in a season. Yeah we did a lot of QB run game so we'd work reads and ball security with them too. If we were chucking it all over the field it probably would've necessitated some more true QB indy time. I'm a big proponnent of pass pro as a group period. I like to split the RB's and have one group work pass pro/blitz pick up, the other at skelly or something. Flip them halfway through the period. I also really like doing this with the QB so they can learn how to move in the pocket. I like splitting them when possible as well. They're a big part of our passing game and need those skelly reps as well.
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Post by rsmith627 on Feb 16, 2023 7:14:00 GMT -6
As a OL coach the answer is, not enough! Seconded - when I coached OL it seemed like we'd get like 40 minutes some days and it was all pretty useful time. Coaching other positions I think you get diminishing returns faster. Depending on the gameplan for the week I felt like 10 with the TE's is enough sometimes. When I was an OC a lot of days the QB's and RB's would never have true indy time as they'd work in a group from the get go. For sure true of RBs. Depending on the week one of my indy periods is spent with the OL working blitz pickup, which is important for us. I did like that though because it eliminated some redundancy and some of those diminishing returns you mentioned. Ball security and our reads in our zone game are important, but you can only do that so much in a season.
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Post by rsmith627 on Feb 15, 2023 11:44:53 GMT -6
Even seeing teams in our area start to get away from the spread formations and back into the I. We play a multiple formation pro-style team (think kind of like Iowa) where they run a ton of wide zone but dress it up with a ton of different motions with PA off of everything. Total PITA to prepare for. In my DC days the toughest game prep I ever had was a pro style team who used 12/13/21/22 personnel groupings to run IZ, OZ, Power, Counter, and Pin and Pull toss. They motioned, shifted, or both, on every play, had an effective drop back game, and had absolutely devastating play action stuff that was totally new every week because they could get into any formation imaginable. Just lining up properly to everything felt impossible and made us revert to the most vanilla calls we had. I will say however, when they couldn't get that run game humming they had a really tough time. The play action wasnt as effective and their dropback game was much more designed to take advantage of soft zone coverages on early downs. (Not that any of that is unique to pro style offenses but was notable because of how unstoppable they felt when it was humming) Yup, that's what these guys are doing essentially, minus the power. They've been young the past few years but now those kids are upperclassmen so I am expecting them to be a problem this year.
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Post by rsmith627 on Feb 15, 2023 11:22:37 GMT -6
I've been saying it for years, we're getting to the point where stuff like that is going to be coming back en vogue because it will be "new" and no one will be prepared to stop it. We're about 10-15 years from fullbacks and the I formation being the Glazier topic of the year. Starting to see this more in major college football. Georgia and Michigan know how to load it up. At the D3 level North Central ran over everyone with a TE and H backs on the field a lot. Rushed for over 350 a game. Even seeing teams in our area start to get away from the spread formations and back into the I. We play a multiple formation pro-style team (think kind of like Iowa) where they run a ton of wide zone but dress it up with a ton of different motions with PA off of everything. Total PITA to prepare for.
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Post by rsmith627 on Feb 14, 2023 5:48:21 GMT -6
Once games hit we get about 15-20 minutes of Indy on Tuesday and Wednesday. During 2 a days and camp it is longer.
Monday is film/condition Thursday is pre-game walkthrough
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Post by rsmith627 on Jan 31, 2023 10:00:31 GMT -6
We use and have been very happy with ProComm. They're the only ones we've tried that have the range we need. We play at Michigan Stadium week 1 most years, and assuming a title run we'd play at Ford Field. The other brands didn't work well for us in either of those venues.
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Post by rsmith627 on Jan 11, 2023 10:19:50 GMT -6
Around here most schools give 5 years. Sometimes you may see 10!years in wealthier districts but those are rare. My school is currently hiring at step 0 - no experience. For someone like me with 25 years, I can’t change jobs as I’d lose nearly 20 steps wherever I go Forgive me, but what in the Hades is the rationale for this? "Welcome to Tiger U, Mr. Saban. We're so glad you are our next HFBC. However, since you are new to Tiger U, we're going to have to pay you like a first time DII coach." Teacher retention through a hostage situation? Can't leave if doing so means a $20k paycut. Been practice here for a while. Not sure if it was like this before the 08 recession but pay was frozen where I'm at from the recession for 9ish years. The swing of that though is now that there's a teacher shortage districts are back to giving years because we aren't churning enough new candidates out of universities here to fill needs, so they need to offer a competitive wage to get teachers.
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Post by rsmith627 on Jan 9, 2023 18:16:54 GMT -6
Man NC really sucks to teach in pay wise huh? I was there for 2 years and it was awful. Lived in Fayetteville and made $30,043 my first two years. Cost of living wise it was actually ok but they started getting rid of things like a pay raise if you earned a master's. Not sure if that's still a thing or not.
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Post by rsmith627 on Jan 9, 2023 7:15:41 GMT -6
Anyone work in an area that gives more than 7 years when switching jobs? Around here that seems to be the max and the better paying places give less. Our contract that just kicked in on Jan 1 is now allowing for up to 9 steps. Previous was only 5.
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Post by rsmith627 on Jan 9, 2023 7:15:02 GMT -6
drive.google.com/file/d/1HJgMseRCbImclhMVwEiswY9Se2tPcb8q/viewHere's ours. Teacher pay is on page 57, and then the breakdown of athletic stipends start on page 58. Teaching pay is ok for our area (not the highest, but definitely not the lowest either), but I think the athletic stipends are a bit on the lower end.
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Post by rsmith627 on Dec 22, 2022 8:38:25 GMT -6
When asked about extra credit my pat response has always been, "Why would I make more work for myself when you don't do the 'regular' credit?" Ya. On the first day of classes I'd always make it a point to say I never did extra credit. Never stopped them from asking with about 2 days left in the semester/year. Only extra credit I sometimes offer is the exam review guide because most kids don't really need to do it anyway as they're fine, but even that isn't a yearly thing. Kids will ask for it before that and I tell them the reason they're asking is they couldn't handle the regular work load. How in the hell are they going to do extra? Again, I teach an elective. We challenge the kids but we are far from the most rigorous class on their schedule.
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Post by rsmith627 on Dec 22, 2022 7:46:55 GMT -6
Parents at the school I was at... Admin didn't agree, but that sums up pretty much everything I had to deal with for 4 years here. You wouldn't even believe the drama I got over, "Ds and Fs are unacceptable, and we will do grade-check 2 times mid-season. Any Ds or Fs and you are not able to play in games until they are all C- or higher". DRAMA... "You are the football coach, you shouldn't punish them for their grades..." "it's unfair that the kids have to keep their grades up, why don't you just worry about it at the end of the quarter" Things like that. One time, I caught kids committing forgery by signing school documents for each other and threatened to not play the game that week because forgery is a serious thing that you shouldn't do... MULTIPLE parent complaints to the office. Not, "Jimmy, your coach is right, you shouldn't forge documents", but instead, "Jimmy, your coach is an {censored} for being mad at you lying/cheating/forging" Gosh that program has tumbled a long way since they were THE team to beat (a few years before your era). I imagine there wasn't much accountability going on there during those days though.
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Post by rsmith627 on Dec 21, 2022 11:29:47 GMT -6
Covid has fuked sh!t up pretty bad. I hope that it filters it’s way out but I’m not sure if we can go back in my lifetime Our honors kids took an online physics test (weather has been poop)..all but one kid aced the test. When they came back they did a paper pencil quiz, it was 5 of the questions directly from the test. All but one got all of them wrong. These past 2 groups of high school kids since we decided COVID was over have no idea how to study or function without being able to cheat. I teach Spanish and have some of my worst grades ever, and I'm a pretty soft grader (though not the softest) because it's an elective and I don't want to kill my program because I like having a job here.
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Post by rsmith627 on Dec 20, 2022 11:37:37 GMT -6
On the topic of kids saying/doing dumb stuff; I hate to be a downer but teaching genuinely made me very pessimistic about the future. The total inability for kids to do seemingly anything is horrifying. After teaching 90 freshman in a health class I would guess that maybe 30% of them could competently put sentences into straight lines with a capital letter and a period. Even more concerning is of those 30% almost all of them were girls. No standards, no accountability, inmates run the asylum behaviorally. Far and away my biggest pet peeve in teaching was the general mindset from so many of them that holding kids accountable or giving them consequences was "mean" or "unfair". That's not helping those kids at all. This thread is devolving quick but I'd take a class full of girls over a bunch of dudes any day for academic reasons. Generally speaking they care more, work harder, and turn in better chit. The dudes in my class inspire very little hope for our future lol. I know they'll be fine though. Just a lot of immaturity. Especially these covid impacted kids.
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Post by rsmith627 on Dec 20, 2022 10:40:56 GMT -6
I teach 5th graders, and we are discussing the Mayans right now. I know it may not seem interesting for the kids, but I try my best and I have kids from prior years always tell me this was the most interesting stuff they learned even when they are older. We are discussing the Spanish coming into the Yucatan Peninsula and timelines so I wanted to start with the beginning of European intro to the Americas so I asked "Christopher Columbus first came to the Americas in what year?". Complete blank stares as well as kids asking who Christopher Columbus was, then a girl shouts out "C'mon guys Christopher Columbus was a president, how do you not know that?" and she was completely serious. Not sure how it relates to pet peeves... but it definitely peeved me. He was our oldest and greatest president. He literally invented a city in Ohio, and Columbus Day. Sarcasm aside, that is really annoying. I had a girl (10th grader) once ask if Oregon is a real place.
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Post by rsmith627 on Dec 20, 2022 7:22:58 GMT -6
You gotta just let that stuff slide away. If you teach HS, those kids will still be that person when they're 40. Worse than that, every year kids are still 15-18, and you're a year older. Even when you hit 55-60. This, I'm only 36 so have 24 years before I can draw that sweet pension. I find myself way more agitated with kids than I did even 5 years ago and know it's only going to get worse. I do try to just let stuff like that roll off though. Kids are kids.
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Post by rsmith627 on Nov 29, 2022 5:23:35 GMT -6
Ours are aligned technically, and we staff our entire program from grade 7 all the way up through varsity. We send those lower level coaches some of our base stuff that we would like to see them doing. It doesn't always happen but they try. Going forward we are talking about clinicking those guys and hopefully more of our stuff will happen. I don't think it's absolutely essential for this alignment, but it's nice if guys down there are using some of the same verbiage so that our kids are used to hearing it. That is one of the reasons why the Wolves have been so successful (and not just in football) for decades. I think the ability to staff the entire program is huge. Even huger is the fact that the overwhelming majority of our staff still teachers somewhere in district. Still, those coaches have the autonomy to run what is working for them. Some levels run our stuff, others don't. I won't discount that being able to talk with those coaches is huge, as opposed to other programs where feeders want nothing to do with you.
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Post by rsmith627 on Nov 28, 2022 12:39:44 GMT -6
Ours are aligned technically, and we staff our entire program from grade 7 all the way up through varsity.
We send those lower level coaches some of our base stuff that we would like to see them doing. It doesn't always happen but they try. Going forward we are talking about clinicking those guys and hopefully more of our stuff will happen.
I don't think it's absolutely essential for this alignment, but it's nice if guys down there are using some of the same verbiage so that our kids are used to hearing it.
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Post by rsmith627 on Nov 23, 2022 8:49:43 GMT -6
Now that the offseason is here for most of us, what are you all most interested in learning about? Could be about your position, could be x's and o's, could be off the field stuff. Always just curious as to what others are looking into. For me I'll be looking at some scheme stuff as always, just because it interests me. Relevant to my actual job, I'll be deep diving more into some RB mechanics. I just finished my first year as a running backs coach after being either offensive line or quarterbacks for most of my career and now know what I didn't know about the position going into this year. I've got some great stuff for you for coaching RBs. It'll change your world. Can get this done in two coaching points. Ready? 1. Take handoff 2. Run ball to hole If you want to get fancy you can throw in an occasional "don't fumble". That's how you make an all-leaguer right there. We do what is needed of us. Need a single game rushing record to beat a rival? We got you. Need us to block? We got you. Need us to lead a pretty good team in receiving yards? We got you. Oh, and we don't gripe about touches or playing time. We just go to work. The don't fumble is important though.
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Post by rsmith627 on Nov 22, 2022 6:37:39 GMT -6
Now that the offseason is here for most of us, what are you all most interested in learning about? Could be about your position, could be x's and o's, could be off the field stuff. Always just curious as to what others are looking into.
For me I'll be looking at some scheme stuff as always, just because it interests me. Relevant to my actual job, I'll be deep diving more into some RB mechanics. I just finished my first year as a running backs coach after being either offensive line or quarterbacks for most of my career and now know what I didn't know about the position going into this year.
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Post by rsmith627 on Nov 20, 2022 12:52:27 GMT -6
We didn't come out on top yesterday either. Great season though. Nobody expected us to be there. We were the underdogs most weeks playing one of the toughest schedules in the state. Maybe even THE toughest schedule.
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Post by rsmith627 on Nov 18, 2022 12:14:43 GMT -6
Was useful though. I really feel like I can do more with our lesser athletes now that I know all I need is a power 5 QB walking around to make those players better lol. Worst clinic presentation I ever went to was a guy from Ga who was speaking on the 4-4. Did the normal, I'm awesome bit because we win without "dudes" shtick and then proceeded to talk about his average of 3-5 SEC players every year on his defense. Also expounded upon the insanity he would unleash on opposing offenses by putting his 1 technique to the strong side and the 3 to the weak. For 20 minutes. YeS i hAd FiVe KiDz gO tO BaMa bUt ThE oThEr 6 wErE pUdS AnD OnLy gOt d2 OfFeRs
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Post by rsmith627 on Nov 18, 2022 11:59:30 GMT -6
lol I attended a session called "Doing Less with More" a few years back. Was supposed to talk about getting more out of inferior athletes or whatever. There was nothing else calling out to me in that time slot so I figured why not. Opens up with talking about his QB who was headed to Va. Tech. His TE that was going I don't remember where. You get the point. Currently has a QB committed to another Power 5 school lol I would ask for a refund for that portion of the clinic lol. That is fkd. Sometimes folks drive or fly hundreds of miles, spend 2-3 nights in a hotel, etc to go to a clinic. Was useful though. I really feel like I can do more with our lesser athletes now that I know all I need is a power 5 QB walking around to make those players better lol.
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Post by rsmith627 on Nov 18, 2022 11:34:24 GMT -6
Game day for us is tomorrow. Supposed to be about 24 degrees with winds gusting up to 30mph. Doesn't get any better!
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Post by rsmith627 on Nov 14, 2022 11:18:05 GMT -6
1. Networking with more knowledgeable coaches. When I run into an issue, I typically hunt someone down I know who's a "guru" on the topic. I prefer getting my info from "the trenches" as it's usually more valuable. 2. Books. I love to read so buying a book on a topic is a treat for me. Some books offer more than others but there's always something to take away from them. And, reading is just good for my brain. 3. Videos. I don't watch many full clinic videos but I find great drills and progressions in this format. 4. Last on my list is clinics. I'm just old, cranky and don't enjoy them much anymore. I agree on clinics. I coach baseball as well and find baseball clinics great because you can apply things easily to what you do. Football clinics now seem so scheme specific and very vague topics. Not to mention half of the clinic is about their background and culture. Don't even get me started on the clinic speakers who talk about having "every day guys like everyone else" when they have 6 D1 kids on defense alone, only to show clips where no one does what he just described. I think trying to message coaches also in the off season is very valuable as you can look for schools that do similar things and pick up minor things they do that you may like. lol I attended a session called "Doing Less with More" a few years back. Was supposed to talk about getting more out of inferior athletes or whatever. There was nothing else calling out to me in that time slot so I figured why not. Opens up with talking about his QB who was headed to Va. Tech. His TE that was going I don't remember where. You get the point. Currently has a QB committed to another Power 5 school lol
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Post by rsmith627 on Nov 14, 2022 11:10:51 GMT -6
Now entering my 1st offseason as a position coach (WRs), not really sure where to start as far as learning more about position work in Indy, but also having a better understanding of the offense as a whole. I bought the book “The Complete Handbook of Coaching Wide Receivers” but haven’t finished it yet, any other ideas / recommendations? Going to meet with the OC a lot this offseason as well of course, but I want to do more to learn & accelerate my growth. Are clinics best? Meeting with other coaches? How do y’all improve in the offseason? I don't really like clinics personally. Those are more of a social event than anything else imo. I like coming here and asking questions, reading through threads, etc. A lot of knowledgeable dudes who've been around a lot of football who are happy to talk on here. I'll probably get called out for this one, but Twitter can be decent if you can filter through the culture bro stuff. YouTube. Tons of great drills out there along with what to use them for in your indy work. I'll be spending a lot of time myself this offseason whenever our playoff run comes to an end. Finishing up my first season as the varsity RB coach and now I have an idea of what I know and coach well, vs what I don't know and want to coach better.
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