Developing a Philosophy...

Coach: I think you've hit on an important point here. What you learn first tends to stay with you, although not always in the obvious way.

For you, it was option football; for me, it was the Wing-T. In both our cases, our views on what made an offense effective were shaped by our early experiences with the veer and the Wing-T, respectively.

In your case, you learned the importance of putting defenders in conflict and forcing them to play assignment football. In mine, it was the importance of misdirection and series-based football.

Even as we moved on to different systems, those underlying beliefs in what makes up an effective offense stayed with us, and will continue to inform our views as we explore new ideas.

So -- what you start with shapes your outlook to a great extent, and also filters how you adapt new concepts into your view of the game.

(I think both you and I were lucky, by the way. Coaches who started off in a 1970's USC-style offense learned the importance of lining up in a Pro-I and handing off to the fastest kid on the team...and that kind of lesson doesn't transfer as well as the ones you and I learned...)

Ted's Wild Bunch is a must read for ANY offensive coordinator. The beauty is less in the plays, but more in the how's/why's of his system (*philosophy*)


It is easy to be influenced by something that "works". I see Hawaii lighting it up, and I think about running the run and shoot. I see Navy hang with the big boys, and I think triple option is the holy grail.


Here's kinda what I think, though I am far from being a coordinator:


Stealing and paraphrasing from Ted, for me it boils down to CONFLICT and EXECUTION.


1. I want things simple to us, yet appear complicated to our opponents. I'll take a kid confident of his assignment, over a kid somewhat less sure who has the ability to change based on defensive reaction (for example, I want my kid breaking the huddle thinking: "I running a great corner route here" rather than trying to check the CB's alignment and cutting off his post-snap movement.)


Although I absolutely love these offenses, I choose not to run them, because I feel "reading" a defense is something I cannot teach, and would take practice time away from my multiplicity and execution.

Among them are: run and shoot, flexbone, shotgun option, split veer, etc.


I love those offenses and will study them until I die, but at least for right now, they don't work for me.


To appear complex, I need multiple shifts and motions and formations. I want to create doubt in the defense's mind, have the defense spend more and more time on coverage checks and rotations in practice than they do on actual football skills, and create favorable matchups where their neckroll player is guarding my wristband player.


2. I want to be able to attack every defender on the field.


This is critical. Force the defense to defend all areas, and something is bound to give.


The tricky part is I want to accomplish this in as few plays as possible.


If I had to start an offense tomorrow, It would be 2-back gun, obviously with the ability to get into 2x2 and 3x1, as well as the ability to get undercenter and run the same plays.


6-7 Air Raid passes (plus quick game) gives me all the passing attack I need in each area of the field (flats, deep, underneath----both vertical and horizontal stretches).

[****A QUICK ASIDE:

This is just my study and personal thinking involving the best ways to move the football. However, it appears to me that defenses DO NOT want two things to happen:

1. They do not want an offense to establish the run

2. They do not want to give up the deep pass

To me, this means they are willing to concede shorter passes. I feel we have a great advantage if we can get GREAT at throwing the ball short. High execution in this area is essential.......WCO philosophy*******]


For the run game, I have three plays.


A. The backbone of the running game is OZ lead. You see WVU run this a ton. This one play puts the DE in a inside/outside conflict; making him wrong everytime is our goal. Also, it quickly out numbers the defense to one side or another.

B. To compliment this is the conflict I have for DT's that overplay the OZ.....trap, influence trap if we can based on front.

C. To slow down playside pursuit, I'd run 4+ reverses a game.


Now, it is matter of complimenting my drop back passing game and run game.

I would run a lead draw from gun and undercenter (one of my all time favorite plays), various naked boots and waggle, and screens.


Right now, that is where I am at.......what I like about this system is I didn't just say "WOW I love what WVU does, I'm gonna run that!"


Instead, I decided what I wanted in an offensive attack, and then formulated plays (which I think are series based) around that.


The other thing I like is it allows me to over-coach the two positions that, imo, need the soundest fundamentals: QB and OL.


The QB has no runs or really reads of much account to make, so we can work more on making him a better thrower. Plus, Air Raid is perfect for accelerating a QB's read progression due to it's simplicity.


The OL obviously only has two run concepts to learn (reverse is based off OZ movement), plus pass pro. Everything else is based off that (like pass pro sets up draw and screens).


That's just the insight into the pains I put into developing a system (which I hopefully, I have chance to use someday)

Defensively, A Philosophy is the key to what we do.

If you have a clear philosophy, you can always refer to it.

Pete Carrol asked that if you don't have a philosophy, then what are you doing?

For me the Defensive Philosophy for my team is this:

1. Create Turnovers
2. Eliminate the "Comfort" zone for the Offense.
3. Fundamentals: Tackling, Pursuit, Block Destruction

We plan our practices around our Philosophy, we design our gameplan around the philosophy.

It comes from the idea that a clear plan with simple objectives is better than an all encompassing plan with many objectives. It's easier to focus.

Taz

I look at it this way. A philosophy is a general statement of how you see the world through the lens of your values, beliefs, and experience. This grounds your thinking and provides a foundation for your success. However philosophy alone is not enough, it must be accompanied by principles and practices. Principles are more specific statements about how you will operate within a given domain. Practices are the things you do to enable the application of the principles. It includes the prep work necessary for success and rules for executing in that domain.

In a football context an overly simple example might be:

Philosophy - It is essential to run the football to establish control of the game. The best way to run the ball is zone running.
Principles - We will establish an inside zone and outside zone running game. We will keep it simple for the O-line and allow our backs to use their athleticism.
Practices - Drills for the O-line and backs, prep work for running against the different fronts you will see, call sheets to clarify when and where to run the ball during a game.

I use this as s a framework for breaking down the philosophy and applying it to a successful outcome.

Coach, I love it!

I think there are a lot of people that could look at what you wrote here and what Ted's stuff is all about and understand that TRULY developing a philosophy is NOTHING about seeing something on TV or at a clinic (WVU is the most common "WOW I gut 2 do what they iz doin'" example for whatever reason) and doing it...and it is all about defining what YOU believe, based on your experiences and values, and then having a way of IMPLEMENTING that through the type of system and plays that you run, how you install them, how you marry techniques with plays, etc.

What's the difference between what works and what doesn't work?

Why does one team have a bad to the bone flexbone offense, and another team with equal talent doesn't?


I think having a philosophy, a plan of attack, a blueprint, etc., is the difference (along with great detail coaching-----also part of a philosophy). Knowing what to do comes from knowing why you do it.

Philosophy - Overachieve.

Play at a higher level than your talent pool would be expected to play by blocking, tackling, running, throwing and catching after every practice better than you did before every practice.

Improvement through meticulous attention to detail and repetition.