how have you evolved?

i played in a split back veer system. i still love that system and love to learn as much about the veer as i can. now i coach in an i-formation offense where we run mostly pitch, lead, and different counters.

between the two offenses, what i've learned is how i really like to simplify things. i like how the veer is very repetitive, but effective. same thing with a one-back zone offense. i like how simple it seems to run and be effective with it.

when i become an oc i don't want to be one that has plays in the playbook just to have 'em there. i want the plays in there to be things that we use.

i'm just entering my fifth year, so i've still got much to learn and hopefully will continue to evolve.

High School: Wishbone

College: Multiple I and split backs

Coaching:

2 yr. Multiple I and split backs (college)
3 yrs. WCO (college)
4 yrs. I backs and multiple 1back (college)
3 yrs. I backs (high school head coach)
5 yrs. Multiple 1 and NO backs (high school OC)

Jeez-
Thats a novel for my career Tog. All I can say is I lost more than I won, and I have seen every BAD thing that can happen to a team. I still love the game, I still love coaching, and I am learning from my players, and from other coaches. Each season that I lost, I still got better at SOMETHING be it management, play selection, or what NOT to do again.
I have tried everything, but I keep coming home to the option. Flexbone, Wishbone, I, Power I, Spread, Gun, Near/Far, I have found a way to get it going.
I have head coaches who loved me and taught me alot, others that just shunted me in a corner with my players and pretty much ignored me the rest of the time.
When I started coaching I was 20 and knew one offense, and two defenses. I had great kids (45 of them and JUST ME), and a simple plan which worked well. We went 7-0 and out scored our opponents 159-40, and thirty of that was scored in one game.
Now I am 35, and I know how to run at least ten different offenses, most with moderate effectiveness, (Though I do run some option out of each) and have a working knowledge of at least 6 different defenses, though the ubiquitous 4-3 is still what I am most comfortable with, and have had the best sucess with. I went 17-2 early in my career, My middle career went 2-25, and now in my later middle career am 10-14, so improving, but still not there yet. My teams have been in every game but two (63-0 and 55-0 fifteen fumbles between the two games). I started out terrified, then got cocky, then I learned humility. I am still a damn good coach, though I have had some rough years. THe kids that have left my hands have gone on to good years, and solid careers, both in High School and College, and not one of them, NOT ONE has been on a losing team after mine. Yes, I have learned humility.
The biggest thing I have learned though, is not to take the losing too hard. So long as I teach well, and teach good fundamentals, those kids take it throughout their football careers, and they go on to become good men.
My largest lesson from this came from watching one of my old QB's who had to dogfight for his position with another quality athlete, playing at a Div IAA School. As I watched, he did his handoffs, quick and sneaky, JUST like we taught him to, with a quick snap of the wrist and hiding the ball the whole way. Talked to him later, and he told me that His QB coach had said, "I haven't seen anyone hand off as nicely as you do, kid. I have nothing to teach you there." That kid whose record under me was 2-16, went on to lead the varsity to its first playoff berth in years, and got a full ride to a solid school.
I have a better idea what I like, and dont like, but am still finding my feet as to an offensive system that I can call home. I love the 4-3, but am learning to appreciate the 3-5 as an alternative. I like to pass, but only to open up the run.
I started out as a "read and react" defensive type, running the 5-2 alot. Now I run 4-3 and working up a 3-5, and believe that the "bend don't break defense" concept is a crock of syphilitic fecal matter. I want my defense to attack attack attack, screaming like banshees the whole way.
When I started coaching I was a "score fast, score often" kind of a coach, not happy unless I was 3-4 touchdowns ahead. Now, I have learned patience and confidence and have changed my thinking to wanting to take away the ball, score quickly early, then take away the ball again, and keep it away as long as we can. I used to run straight at my opponents daring them to stop us. It was only after I got stopped so MUCH that I have learned to be sneaky. Now I hide the ball with the artfulness of a master thief, making the defense search it out, hopefully not until we have snuck it across the end line.
I was a young, stupid kid, not much older than my players when I started. I was thrust into situations that were way over my head, but I swam as well as I could.
Now a little more seasoned, a little more cautious, and in some ways a little more bold, I am ready to find a home.
That answer your question Tog? Apologies for the novel, but you caught me in an introspective mood.

great stuff guys
makes you think

bucky, sounds like you're doing something right

getting those kids on the underlevels to know and run what you will run down the line is like building infrastructure

I began my coaching career in 1971, at a school in the Corpus Christi area. We were AAAA (it was AAA before the UIL changed), but had football numbers that would embarass AA schools. I coached JV for 3 years. Offensively I learned that to be able to compete in that district we had to avoid turning the ball over and make the game as short as possible. We went through several different "offenses", since the varsity changed almost every year. We were wishbone, I, wing T, slot I, etc. Regardless of the offense, we (JV) were going to run the ball, work hard at not turning it over, be disciplined and avoid penalties. Our passing was mostly play action, short and controlled.
Defensively, which is what I have coached most of my career, I realized that to compete, we had to be very aggressive, get up the field and make things happen. We were a Cuero, UofT, 43 (27) defense. Physically we could not hope to match up with Gregory-Portland, Calallen, etc. so we had to use pressure, pressure, pressure. Our JV never had a losing season and that defensive philosophy has stayed with me.
I was very fortunate to coach with a man who ran the 059, that also had a very aggressive attidtude. I learned so much from him about the different things that could be done with the 50. It can be a very multiple defense.
As time has passed and offenses have changed, I have tinkered with differnet defenses, but when I get in trouble , I always come back to the 50.
I realize that as a coach you must be ready to adjust and grow, but that you also must have something, offensively and defensively, that you can hang your hat on. I have been fortunate to have been a part of some good programs and worked with some really outstanding coaches. Without fail, every time we have been successful, we have run the 50 and been aggressive as heck.
I guess my evolution has actually taken me back to where I began. That is not always bad.

I played my HS ball in PA, the first two at a very small school that was just awesomely smalltime. Before my junior year, my school was a part of a jointure so I got to play for a great coaching staff (Hawke was the DC). That was like coaching school: the importance of fundamentals: multiple defense; conditioning and the offseason program. Black Monday impressed on me the importance of attitude.
In my four years in HS I was fortunate enough to have been on three championship teams. The last one, my senior year, was instructive because we played and beat a very talented team, one that had two guys who went to NFL camps. We beat them in a game in which we attempted three passes and completed a total of zero. That was a great lesson on the importance of a great game plan, the value of hunger, and how the offense and defense work together (my boss, the HC and OC was a teammate on that team).
After HS, I went to a school that was commessurate with my talent- one of the worst D. 3 schools in the country (we made the national ABC scoreboard show as the lowest-scoring in the country). Most of my lessons there were negative: "Don't do this", etc.
After college, I coached rec league for a year, where I learned to tone it down. Then I got a job in Virginia. Coached a number of systems before I got my present job.
As the DC there, we started out in the shade 50. Eventually, we felt that the shade made it difficult to adjust to one-back formations so we switched to a 4-3. Wanting more multiplicity, we switched to an 8 man front. Ironically, the need for disguise has brought us back to what's mostly a 4-3.

played in a Pro I (power & option) offense and 34 read & react defense in college.....played nose and end...and totally HATED playing shades (when we eagled) or in a gap......then transfered to another college and learned how to play inside / outside in shades for gaps and loved it, now run a 42 that shifts into 34 fronts.

I've come from just seeing the option as the only way to move the ball to having equal love for wing t, bone, double wing, spread, ace, etc......man, it ALL works.

Defense, for me, never was about formations but how you PLAYED it.....33, 34, 53, 43, etc...just explained where you started from, but we all essentially are doing the same things.

High School: Played 8-man (I-Option) and 3-2 Defense.

College: Played JC 4-2-5 and I-Option, 4-Year 4-3 and spread.

Have coached in a: Defense 4-3, 46, 52, 44
Offense I-Option, Veer, Shotgun Wing-t

Now coach a multiple 4-2-5 and multiple spread.

Played in run and shoot offense in H.S. and loved it. We put up huge points and set state records. In college we were a 1 back zone team with a 70% - 30% passing to run ratio. We were not a great team but I likes the system.

When I started my coaching career it was wing-T and I couldn't stand it. Double wing stuff, foot to foot splits, it was just so boring. Once I was in a position of making decisions I installed a shotgun offense with an emphasis on the option. I love it! It gives me the opportunity to be creative and a lot of kids get to touch the ball.

The funny thing is I learned more from watching the bad coaches I have worked for in the past. It lets you know 1st hand what not to do!

H.S. played in a Option and Zone I and 3-4/52 defense
IN College Played in the Spread/One-Back.

Coaching Wing-T and 3-4(52) love the Wing-T, but because we have been unable to get into the playoffs but once, can't say I love the bucksweep as much(under center) but love the other plays.

4-3 Cover 4 defense is now my thing.

HS- Played in Wishbone, triple option or die system (1st with Matt Dillon, and after he left with Keith Gurius..also ahd great assistants who truly cared about us as people first athletes second)
1st Year of college- also in a wishbone system (this is where i began to think about coaching as rb coach Mike Howard made me learn what everyone was doing) did not like the town, so transferred
Rest of College- Played for 1 of the greatest player coaches out there (Terry Allen at UNI) learned a TON about how to treat athletes (all of them...not just the stars) also really became a film guy, and a student of the game there as I HAD TO BE...thanks to Bill Salmon (OC at UNI still) I learned about the weaknesses in a defense, and how to use an offesne to exploit them...he is a great guy, and he taught me a ton, which is good because besides special teams and spring ball at RB I rarely saw the field (and loved every minute of it)
1st year of coaching- Assistant while student teaching we ran wing t and 5-2 eagle defense (AP HS in Iowa is a top notch program with some of the best coaches at any level anywhere) Learned a ton about organization, coaching the minute details, etc. What an awakening.
2nd Year of coaching (head coach 9 man school in SD) THOUGHT I knew it all (hell I bet at that time I thought I invented the game) we made the playoffs for the first time in school histroy. We were a wishbone team and played a 3-3 stack Defense
3rd year made the playoffs again, same school, and beat the number 1 team in the state at the time in the first round.
4th year Found out I really did not know anything about the game. went 0-8 with a bunch of great kids who were not real good football players (they were young and small only had 1 senior starter, and 1 junior, rest were soph or freshmen) this was the year i switched to DW. Bone was not working, we could not man block my mother. The angles and doubles of the DW made us competitive (we had not scored in 1st 3 games, in 4th game against a good opponent we put 36 on the board and still lost...couldn't tackle my mother either)
5th year DW, 3-3 stack...made the playoffs again
6-10th year (new school 11 man in Iowa)...still DW(probably until death) and have run anywhere from 5-2 to 4-4 to 4-3 early on in Iowa, to a 5-2 eagle now. Love the eagle...puts people in conflict based solely upon alignment. Have gone 52-11 and been to the playoffs every year at GH and have been league champs 5 of the 6 years.

Have figured out in my short career it is about the kids, have lost my ego, and now I try to make FB a positive experience for anyone who chooses to be a member of our team. Treat them right, sell them on what "we do" and everything else will take care of itself with a little luck!