The game has passed me by?

The game hasn't passed you by. I'm finding that a lot of the clinic scene is an ego trip for guys who want to show how smart they are; they use a lot of verbiage to make what they're doing unapproachable and seem complex. If you had the time and desire to sit down and learn such a system, I'm sure you could.

For what it's worth, I'm 37. I think I'm a pretty smart guy. In 15 years of coaching, I've learned that I simply can't sit, listen, and understand clinic talks. I have to work it out on my own on a white board or notebook, and ask questions. That's just how I work.

Finally, is an RPO system any more or less qb intensive than a triple option offense? I would say it isn't, in fact it might be less complex because the speed of the plays is slower out of the gun. It's just different from what we did "traditionally".

And besides, you don't have to run the facemelter offense to score 70. I've had plenty of good, high scoring teams that ran the pro I.

Was it the Facemelter? Sounds like the Facemelter.

Just get a visor, Twitter, and chest bump kids during games and all that knowledge will magically appear in your brain.

Everything is just repackaged and relabeled stuff from the old days. I still haven't had anyone be able to show me how veer-option and zone-read are not the same thing.

Dive-key and pitch-key with angles on everyone else. If you defend it the same way as veer, you can stop if your athletes are approximately similar in talent.


Still boils down to blocking and tackling.

Especially at HS level, I'd say games are 80-90% talent disparity between the 2 teams. I've seen guys do things that are not sound on both offense and defense but if your RB is so good he requires 2 defenders to bring him down, I'm gonna struggle.

That's why coaches in college recruit size and athleticism over most other things. Your coaching and culture will help maximize what you've already got. Keep grinding and loving the kids... everything else comes and goes. The top 10 programs around here in terms of year in and year out success run the following:

Split Veer
I-form power/ctr/iso
WingT
Flexbone
2 spread

1 thing in common though.. DUDES for their level.

The powerhouse in our state classification would give a pretty boring Xs and Os clinic: no-huddle Gun Wing-T with tons of window dressing, Buck series, Jet Series, 2-3 PA concepts, 4-5 quick passing concepts, 4 Air Raid concepts, 2 screens. No RPOs, no read game of any kind. They out-execute people and have a few NAIA level athletes each year. They'll send a kid to the FCS level here and there.

I have seen that there is seldom anything truly new in football. Just new ways of doing the same thing.

This is the truth as expressed by Vince Lombardi. 

I have long been a proponent of ball control, time of possession, and series and sequence football.

In the "New Order" of football, this has seemed to fallen by the wayside, with the advent of the proverbial "fast break basketball on grass."
This works great if you've got the talent, not so good if you don't.

It seems a bit complicated for an old fogey like me.
Hence the question about "the game passing me by," something that I heard in the past about "older" coaches, who stayed on beyond their perceived usefulness.

Played against a team in high school that didnt have a kid that could long snap, C snapped to the QB who turned and underhanded the ball back to the punter

If you didn't get what he was saying then its his fault (either he is a bad communicator or just being self gratifying by using his own terms to talk over your head).

Heck, NFL and D1 playcalling isnt that difficult, so don't stress out about him. If his stuff is difficult its bad on him. Remember there are no such things as bad students, only bad teachers.

lmao, I called Oregon my second year in coaching....some 14 years ago. I talked with their quarterback coach about how they ran their "veer" he informed me that they weren't running the veer that it was a zone read and passed me on to a GA. 

The only difference I see in zone read and traditional under center veer, is that the dive back has more than one lane that he can cut through. Then again at the end of the day, does veer not mean triple option?

I feel ya coach, just got back from a clinic with a guy on the defensive side similar to your post. Here I am rolling into the clinic with 20 years experience and off the back of my first state championship appearance. I mean, I must be at the very least a "pretty good" coach, right?

His first question to everyone in the room, "how many of you guys are familiar with Saban's stuff?" Of course my hand goes up with a hand full of others as I think to myself, "Dam it, this is going to be so gratifying hearing this successful high level coach talk about doing the same chit we've been doing, I could probably teach this clinic myself!"

Then his next question, "How many of you guys are one high, probably running 3 match?" My hand goes up even higher this time....only to hear him say..."I don't know how you guys are still running that, teams have figured it out around here so this is what we are doing now." {continues with presentation}

Let me first say, his presentation was the real deal, he totally knew his stuff inside and out. The problem was, I just couldn't keep up, I needed a translator, I needed him to slow down! After 3 hours, I went back to our room cracked a beer with the boys and told them I hope we never have to defend an offense loaded with 5 star commits because I'm not even close to ready....very humbling! I guess hearing guys like that is what keep us working to get better! 

Oh and by the way, Iowa St's Tight Front defense is no longer a thing either, old news. 

As you already know, football works in trends. It evolves, but the more it changes the more it stays the same. Teams are running power, counter, iso, trap, buck sweep, stretch, and inside zone. They may not call it 46 Power any more. They may call it something like Pittsburgh. But it is power. I look at it as a simple choice of verbiage and how you fit it to your kids. 

Our evolution to building pass routes into our run game was simply to protect the run while getting our skill guys more quality touches. It seemed like every time we called a run we had a loaded box. Every time we called a hitch route to the single we had hard coverage. We wanted to take advantage of space when space was available. 

When we call inside zone to the right (Formerly 42 Inside, now Hoosier) We are going to have catch and throw concepts on the perimeter. Our QB looks for space. If we have space, throw the catch and throw concept. If we don't have space on the perimeter, we will execute the run. There are three concepts in one, but when we teach it with a process, our guys learn it. They don't know any different. 

Because defenses are trying to get secondary guys to add themselves to the box, we have added some post snap RPO's. I am an old I option guy. This is option football, just with a pull and throw instead of a pull and run. 

The game has not passed you by at all. I speak at a few clinics each year. Last week I had dinner with a coach in Chicago after I talked about our RPO's. He has been Wing-T for many years and he wins. He said he came to my talks because a few opponents were doing this stuff. He asked me if he thought he needed to change from the wing-t. I told him absolutely not. Do what you do and what you know. 

My background is option from the I. We were under center in the late 90's when I first became an OC. We eventually adapted our system to the gun/pistol. We then added paired quick game concepts. Then we evolved to post snap RPO's. In my eyes it is just option football. You are trying to equate numbers in the box to run the ball. Post snap RPO's have replaced some of our play action game. We have a process and a system for teaching, and our kids get it. But if our kids didn't get it or we didn't have dudes to do it, we would do something else. 


Disclaimer: I am a visor wearing OC. 

I don't know that it's the new normal---but it's definitely on the upswing.  What he's doing is just taking what you do in another direction.  You use numbers for the plays, he uses words.  Lots of old option guys had 3 elements in nearly every snap.  However, there are still plenty of good coaches doing exactly what you're doing.

When I first decided to go no-huddle in the mid 90s, there wasn't as much info around.  I felt like we couldn't call the same numbers we had used for plays in the past for plays since most people used the same numbering, so we needed words.  I was so bright that during the install for weeks I was using the old numbers and the new words.  Eventually, one of the players asked "why do we need both?"  I didn't have an answer.  The numbers went away.  But if I used "Bobby Red" instead of 33, the players learn it just the same.  It's just based on what you're taught and what you get used to.

I'm like you lots of times at clinics when coaches use their own terminology instead of something more universal.  I'd much rather you talk to me about how you're running power read than how you're running "Rip Roscoe Red" or some such name you've given it.

What's funny about this is that 55 years ago, if you said "option", run-pass option would've been assumed!  A few years later, not so much.  So things look old-fashioned or new-fangled depending on perspective.

Of course then, run-pass options were running passes on the edges, no option to hand the ball to someone.

"Double wing" means something very different to most coaches now from what it meant then, and back then it meant something different than it used to earlier.

I still do a mental double take when I hear of a receiver's being "covered" by a meaning it definitely did not have back then!

Also was funny communicating with a coach who didn't realize the word "buck" in "buck sweep" had an independent meaning.  He didn't realize how the term was constructed, and so used the word in a way that confused me, and I in a way that confused him.