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Post by shocktroop34 on Oct 30, 2017 12:07:29 GMT -6
Been on both sides. A few years ago, a team that we had beaten soundly, in back to back years, came to our place looking for some payback. We had never run the score up on them, but one could tell that this particular year, they were good, we weren't, and they were going to remind us of it.
They were posting a shut out, with only minutes left in the game. They were up 28-0 and slinging the ball all around the yard. It was obvious what was going on. On their last drive they are still pushing the ball down the field when their QB drops back and throws a pick six.
I shook hands with the coach and told him he could have had a shut out, if he wasn't so greedy. His sheepish grin confirmed what I already knew. Anyway, I wasn't mad.
SH*t happens.
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Post by shocktroop34 on Apr 5, 2017 8:54:12 GMT -6
Can we please stop calling them "spirit packs"?
That's what the vendors call them.
Is there a better label?
I always called it team gear or team packs. "Spirit Pack" was a little too glittery for me.
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Post by shocktroop34 on Jan 23, 2017 21:06:36 GMT -6
One year I bought ad space in the local paper. It wasn't huge, but big enough to honor a few special people. Anytime you can publicly recognize people, it goes a long way.
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Post by shocktroop34 on Jan 23, 2017 13:39:23 GMT -6
If you don't think that issues like this are important to a coach then you have a lot to learn about this business. I said this when the thread was diverging into politics. I understand the importance of teaching students right and wrong. I also felt that at the time this thread was verging on becoming a shouting match. I meant no disrespect by my comment, and honestly as the thread continues I am regretting my comment. But, As a history major I also see the benefit of peaceful protest, therefore I do not understand the problem we have with a student or group of students kneeling. To me if they can articulate why they are kneeling, they not only should have the right to, but I would encourage it. I call that civic leadership. I wonder if any of you teachers have discussed or are allowed to discuss the issues that are being protested by pro athletes. No disrespect taken. I understood what you meant when you wrote it. I don't want to speak for fantom, but I think what he is alluding to is that our profession as coaches has "layers" to it. Sometimes those layers take a while to unfold, and at the root of one problem, you can often find a solution to another. But you just can't look at the top layer. As ugly as it may be sometimes, you have to look at all of it.
Just as an example, our school went through this issue this past season. I was an asst. for a D-III program and simply didn't think our kids paid enough attention to even act on the matter. I was wrong. We heard whispers of a protest and the HC got out in front of it.
Being glad I was no longer a HC anymore, I was very interested to see how the HC would handle it. He spoke on it a few times with the team during the week, and even once before we took the field.
His rationale was that if you wanted to kneel, then meet with him, and explain why. As long as it was clear reasoning, he would support it. There were about 12 players that choose to kneel. And it wasn't that big of deal in our program.
My son plays for the team. He stood in the middle of the group that knelt down.
I had not even talked to him about such matters, but I asked him after the game why he stood. He said, 'dad that's not my style, but I wanted the group to know that I stand with them in support.'
The morale of the story, for me at least, was that sometimes the life-lessons that kids come up with on their own, can be more meaningful than the ones that are forced upon them.
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Post by shocktroop34 on Jan 22, 2017 11:11:51 GMT -6
So you basically chose to infringe on his constitutional rights. Secondly, that article is over a year old, and I'm not sure what the purpose of bringing it up now serves aceback76 , other than to fan the flames of political rhetoric, during an already divisive time in our country, on a football board. This problem occurs when football collides with politics, or anything else outside of the game. If the kid was a jackass, you should have seen it coming and addressed it prior to the game, instead of teaching a misplaced lesson on civil rights. Freedom of expression has no boundaries. As a former Marine, I shed blood, sweat, and tears for people to say, what they want to say, when they want to say it. That principle, alone, is the difference between us and our enemies. Democracy vs. everybody else. I personally stand for the pledge every morning. I stand at attention for the national anthem. I pay my taxes, and as an 0331 (Machine Gunner) I appreciate the right to bear arms (I can still shoot the wings off a gnat). If I stand alone on this, well it won't be the first time I stood alone. But I won't stand idle and make it seem like it is okay to suppress certain alienable rights, especially in young people who may not know the full weight of their actions regarding this matter. The kid goes to a private school. He doesn't like the rules he and his parents can take their money and go elsewhere. I did see it coming which is why I saw him in the stands. It wasn't a lesson in civil rights, it was a lesson in following the rules that he'd already been told of ahead of time. I infringed on his constitutional rights? Freedom of expression has no boundaries? Wow... Not sure I see or understand the correlation between whether he was at a private school or anywhere else. Every school has rules and policies. Where in the school policy does it specifically state that every child must stand for the pledge? I'm not talking about some vague verbiage that falls under the umbrella of respect or conduct. If this was something you expressed to your team prior to the game, which you didn't stipulate in your OP, then the player didn't respect your wishes. It sounds more like you were more intent on trying to embarrass your player, while making yourself look, and feel, more patriotic. The fact that you shrugged off your accountability/error in this matter is more troubling. "Freedom of expression happens on their own time?" If the patriots of this country only defended our democratic culture "on our own time" we'd all be calling each other Comrade and wearing babushkas. However, most of us who served understand that we did if for everyone, regardless of their personal beliefs. And the whole point is that you are still permitted to have personal beliefs. This is the message you failed to get across to your player as he sat in the stands. One day that young man is going to grow into a man, hopefully a mature one. If and when he does, he will see that he had rights that were violated by a coach that allowed his personal agenda to unprofessionally collide with the game of football.
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Post by shocktroop34 on Jan 21, 2017 21:15:57 GMT -6
There is this slight little thing called freedom of expression--you know, that people fought and died for. I don't have to agree with your not standing for the anthem, but it's your right. For years I have made it a practice to keep my team away from the field until after the anthem is played--eliminated the problem of one of them being a dumb azz during the anthem. At some places, you have to let your captains out before the anthem is played. I handled that by telling them that as captains, they were not representing themselves, but the entire team. As such, they would have to stand for the anthem and if that was going to be a problem for them personally, then they were not to go out until the rest of the team did. This is how you handle it. Well done.
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Post by shocktroop34 on Jan 21, 2017 21:14:01 GMT -6
I tell our players that they are representatives of our school and our program, what they do doesn't reflect solely on them. They will stand for the anthem or they will sit for the game. I noticed one of my JV players at the first game of the season put his hands in his pockets and sit down, draw attention to himself to show what he was doing. The kid wasn't making a political statement, he's just a jackass and was trying to be funny. I walked across the track, pointed and hollered at him to "get up and show respect". He got plenty of attention but not the kind he wanted. He sat the next game. Their freedom of expression happens on their own time. When they're representing the program they will behave as we instruct them or they will play somewhere else. So you basically chose to infringe on his constitutional rights. Secondly, that article is over a year old, and I'm not sure what the purpose of bringing it up now serves aceback76 , other than to fan the flames of political rhetoric, during an already divisive time in our country, on a football board. This problem occurs when football collides with politics, or anything else outside of the game. If the kid was a jackass, you should have seen it coming and addressed it prior to the game, instead of teaching a misplaced lesson on civil rights. Freedom of expression has no boundaries. As a former Marine, I shed blood, sweat, and tears for people to say, what they want to say, when they want to say it. That principle, alone, is the difference between us and our enemies. Democracy vs. everybody else. I personally stand for the pledge every morning. I stand at attention for the national anthem. I pay my taxes, and as an 0331 (Machine Gunner) I appreciate the right to bear arms (I can still shoot the wings off a gnat). If I stand alone on this, well it won't be the first time I stood alone. But I won't stand idle and make it seem like it is okay to suppress certain alienable rights, especially in young people who may not know the full weight of their actions regarding this matter.
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Post by shocktroop34 on Jan 17, 2017 12:48:53 GMT -6
I've coaches two kids in foster care. Both were good athletes. One had a foster parent that did nothing for him, and pocketed the money he was supposed to receive from the state. He was good enough to be offered a walk-on invite to a FCS school, but basically fizzled out and didn't have good enough grades/test score to get into school (which he would have attended for free as a ward of the state). I saw him a while ago working at a liquor store.
The second player was a 6'2 WR who was also an exceptional player. Probably a DII fit, but one of our best players at the time. He had major attendance issues and other off-the-field issues that kept becoming a distraction. He also seemed to have an oppositional defiance disorder as coaching him was extremely touchy. The distractions became so difficult to manage that I had to let him go during week 4 of the season. My staff was pretty sure that I had lost my mind. Oddly enough, we got better after he left. I used him as an example for everyone who thought they were too good to be replaced.
I really cared for the latter player. I spent a lot of time trying to work with him. He was charming and very likeable, but there was also his alter ego that caused pure havoc. Cutting him was a tough thing to do, but he was actually very mature about the whole situation. He moved on and never went anywhere, and has moved on with his life. A couple years after this event, he texted me and thanked me for everything I tried to do for him.
I slept better that night.
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Post by shocktroop34 on Jan 16, 2017 12:29:05 GMT -6
I believe the biggest factor is support. Specifically, ones administration, and boosters (if the boosters are an influential group).
Nothing else really matters, IMO. Whether you are inheriting a good or bad program, if you don't have the support from the right people, it will all come crumbling down anyway.
My first job, I took over a team that won two games in three years. In the three years I was there, I went 2-7, 4-5, 4-5. During my tenure, I never felt like my job was in jeopardy, and I received support when the situation called for it.
As others have stated, you need time to build. That said time is only afforded by a certain group of people. If you don't get it, you'll know sooner than later.
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Post by shocktroop34 on Jan 5, 2017 13:39:53 GMT -6
Metal Monday Hip Hop Tuesday Classic Rock Wednesday Throwback(90's) Thursday
We don't lift on Friday's, but if we did, we would play both "Country and Western" (for all you Blues Brothers fans).
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Post by shocktroop34 on Dec 19, 2016 7:15:21 GMT -6
1. Condition during ST's:
One thing we did is brief sessions of conditioning during Special Teams periods.
When kickoff runs down, everyone on the sidelines ran to the other side and stopped.
When kickoff ran back to set up again, everyone sprinted back to the other side.
They ran so much that they were fighting to be on ST's, which is what you want anyway.
2. Play your 2's:
Our 2's played. They were told, and we held ourselves accountable as a staff to play all of our 2's, at least one play. I understand that this may be more achievable with larger rosters, but I did it with a roster of 20. They are more inclined to pay attention and play around much less when they know they are going to play.
3. Follow up (Check for understanding) after practice:
When you bring the team in, ask a couple players one thing they picked up on from today's practice. Ask the guys that you know weren't engaged. Just like the classroom, players are more inclined to pay attention if they know they are going to be held accountable for what they learned.
Just a few off the top of the dome.
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Post by shocktroop34 on Dec 15, 2016 15:33:33 GMT -6
Offense: Teaching QB's to use their eyes to move the safety & releasing the ball before the WR is out of his break on timing routes.
Defense: Teaching young DB's sound man coverage & keeping their eyes out of the backfield.
Philosophy: College football isn't for everyone. Be a role player, help us win, and enjoy your time as a high school athlete.
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Post by shocktroop34 on Dec 15, 2016 6:52:29 GMT -6
I understand your concern. If it were me, I would totally step back from this situation and let my AD handle this.
Anytime lawyers are involved, I consider it beyond my pay grade. This isn't a cut & dry type of situation as I once thought.
I like free, just as much as the next guy. But this case seems to have an ulterior motive that is still unclear.
Tread lightly my friend.
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Post by shocktroop34 on Dec 13, 2016 18:16:03 GMT -6
I would have to see the team and what type of system they run, but sometimes QB "finger licks" (for lack of a better phrase) can sometimes give up a pass tell.
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Post by shocktroop34 on Dec 13, 2016 18:05:00 GMT -6
This topic has me somewhat confused. What would be the opposite of an "open and honest staff"? Are you really asking if we work with good guys or douches? Not quite. The question stemmed from listening to a pastor speak about how many people in positions of authority have very few people to open up to. I saw a good coach in my area get ground to dust because he internalized everything and didn't have much rapport with his staff. In other news, I thought the OP was pretty clear.
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Post by shocktroop34 on Dec 12, 2016 20:31:56 GMT -6
The best staff I ever coached on wouldn't hire a guy who wouldn't mesh well with the rest of our personalities. We were all pretty laid back guys that communicated well with one another and didn't have big egos. There was a highly qualified former college coach that applied for a position but the HC didn't hire him because he was a micro-manager. Props to the HC: Relationship over resume.
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Post by shocktroop34 on Dec 12, 2016 6:58:21 GMT -6
How open and honest is your football staff? In general terms, do you all share personal and family information and such? I was just thinking about some of the staffs I've been on in the past. How much do coaches confide in one another anymore?
Trying to think of the dynamics that made coaching fun, regardless of our record.
When I was in the military, there were things that guys in my platoon knew about me that I could tell no one else.
Just curious if that aspect is alive among coaching staffs anymore...
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Post by shocktroop34 on Dec 10, 2016 21:38:04 GMT -6
Any other tips on the AFCA convention? I'm also thinking of bringing my wife. She loves to travel, loves the football atmosphere, and said she can find other things to do while I'm at sessions. She would definitely get into the wife activities. Do you recommend staying at the convention hotel? rooms at Gaylord were booked Thanks Coach. I just checked with a coach who has a room there already. I'll be one of six in that room. lol. Thanks for the heads up tho.
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Post by shocktroop34 on Dec 8, 2016 14:26:25 GMT -6
I had a principal once tell me, "don't put anything in an email that you wouldn't want written on the front page of the New York Times." I have some coaching buddies with a warped sense of humor, and I get tempted from time to time. But I always try to keep her words in mind.
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Post by shocktroop34 on Dec 5, 2016 22:55:47 GMT -6
Any other tips on the AFCA convention? I'm also thinking of bringing my wife. She loves to travel, loves the football atmosphere, and said she can find other things to do while I'm at sessions. She would definitely get into the wife activities. Do you recommend staying at the convention hotel? Yes... easier to just be there and not have to worry about travel except maybe 1 or 2 times if you want to get out with the wife a couple of times. Ther are always cabs out and about and so many people out walking around, its not bad at all. I've never been to Nashville, so not sure about the layout, but in Louisville and San Antonio you could have gone either way. Let me now when you guys are gonna get into town and we can meet up and do drinks or something. Roger that Coach. I'm almost a definite as the wife is excited to go. I'll message you later when I know our details. Thanks, for the info.
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Post by shocktroop34 on Dec 5, 2016 21:39:47 GMT -6
Already booked, paid for, and a done deal for the wife and I to attend the AFCA in Nashville, TN... pvogel is trying to get me to put together the money to come stay with him for the Tampa Glazier though... don't know if I can afford 2 cross-country trips in one clinic season... we'll see. Any other tips on the AFCA convention? I'm also thinking of bringing my wife. She loves to travel, loves the football atmosphere, and said she can find other things to do while I'm at sessions. She would definitely get into the wife activities. Do you recommend staying at the convention hotel?
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Post by shocktroop34 on Dec 5, 2016 20:56:26 GMT -6
I don't know DCOhio personally, but like most of us, I feel like I know him just based on how engaging he was on this board.
I was worried when he took the job there, and even more worried when his appearances on Huey became less and less.
AS much as I'm concerned about his job status, I'm just relieved he didn't get married (if he reads this, he'll like this joke - trust me).
Stay up DC.
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Post by shocktroop34 on Nov 30, 2016 13:48:39 GMT -6
I look at how Texas and LSU had to jockey for Herman, and LSU said they "weren't going to be held hostage" by Herman. I also look at PJ Fleck who is waiting until his conference championship to talk to any teams. I respect his integrity and focus he has toward his team, but does that hurt his chances on the "coaching carousel?"
Fleck may not talk to other schools until after Friday, but his AGENT sure could be-have been.
If someone is interested enough in him, they'll wait.
The two-week recruiting contact period just started this past Monday.
When a coach says, 'I haven't talked to BIG STATE University or anyone else. I'm focused on this team and this upcoming game.' Technically, he's probably telling the truth.
I think any agent worth his salt is doing his best to help his client. That includes speaking for him behind the scenes, so he doesn't have to speak in public.
Good point, Coach.
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Post by shocktroop34 on Nov 29, 2016 12:24:30 GMT -6
Telling colleges-universities whom they can hire or when does not fall under the purview of NCAA. I had to look up purview (control, range). Got it Coach.
Could the NCAA gain control of such a task, or is that a legal battle that no one wants?
Honestly, I'm not a fan of the NCAA regulating anything, in general, but there seems like there should be a better solution to protect the interests and well-being of the players.
I appreciate any thoughts Coach.
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Post by shocktroop34 on Nov 29, 2016 8:16:59 GMT -6
What if there was a two-week window, immediately at the end of each conference's respective season, where the only firing and hiring could happen at that time?
Should the NCAA consider a signing period for college coaches? How might this impact the landscape for college programs?
I think about how these AD's hire/fire coaches before the end of the season and how it affects the players that are, for a lack of a better phrase, "collateral damage."
I look at how Texas and LSU had to jockey for Herman, and LSU said they "weren't going to be held hostage" by Herman. I also look at PJ Fleck who is waiting until his conference championship to talk to any teams. I respect his integrity and focus he has toward his team, but does that hurt his chances on the "coaching carousel?"
Maybe this is too far fetched. I'm sure I'm missing something. Just thought it would be an interesting discussion.
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Post by shocktroop34 on Nov 2, 2016 5:35:04 GMT -6
Just saw a reporter tweet that he spoke to our state association and they checked with the national federation and were told that this was legal Very interesting...but I don't want to win that way.
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Post by shocktroop34 on Oct 26, 2016 6:42:20 GMT -6
What have you done or what are you doing to ensure a successful playoff run?
I always tried to have fresh legs and as many healthy people as possible when starting the post season.
If I had a few good JV players, I would pull them up. On a few occasions, they were good enough where I could find a back up playing role for them.
I also tried to find ways to have "fun" as the practices can become redundant after a while.
Looking for insight to what others do in preparation of the playoff season...
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Post by shocktroop34 on Aug 20, 2016 13:43:58 GMT -6
OC: Urban DC: Saban These two can recruit from anywhere in the country and know their craft inside out. Not saying he doesn't know his offense, but (IIRC) Meyer was never an OC anywhere and doesn't seem to have the "guru" label for one side of the ball that some other coaches have (like Saban). Meyer seems to rely heavily on whoever is his OC. His Florida teams dropped off some after Mullen left and the same thing happened (though maybe not to the same extent) when Herman left OSU.
I would absolutely pick Meyer as one of my top two HC's, but that's not the same as coordinating. He doesn't have the same track record on one side of the ball as people like Malzahn, etc.
I don't think you are taking into account Urbans days at Bowling Green and Utah when he was developing and evolving many of the spread concepts that many are still running today. He made the idea of spreading to run the ball a popular concept long before others caught on. The stuff Malzahn, Briles, etc do are evolved ideas from Meyers early days. Its OK to lean heavily on your OC when you've given him the blue print. 😊
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Post by shocktroop34 on Aug 19, 2016 12:53:35 GMT -6
OC: Urban DC: Saban
These two can recruit from anywhere in the country and know their craft inside out.
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Post by shocktroop34 on Jul 28, 2016 8:38:12 GMT -6
I read an article describing what scouts do. They get to the college facility early, watch film and talk to the coaches. Then they watch the kid work out, leave for the next place, check into the hotel, and write up the reports. Sounds like a pretty miserable job. Coach, I'm seeing the same things in the articles I've just read. I'm thinking this isn't for me. Sounds like a younger man's game as well.
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