Who do you want to emulate?

Just FYI, be warned you are going to get bashed for the question. Theres always a group of coaches on here who have all the answers and are going to let you know when you don't.

I don't know that I try to emulate anyone when I coach. I do know that my personality as a teacher/coach/dad/husband is a combination of many people. One being my family, and another part being my high school football coach who was like a 2nd father to me, so much that my son is named after him. I think the older and more experienced you get in this profession, the more you get comfortable just being yourself. Now yourself could still be a combination of other coaches you played under, coached with, learned from etc. My own parents will tell me that some of the ways I talk to the media sound like my old high school coach, and I can see it in the way I approach certain topics. I also feel that some of the other Head Coaches I have worked for prior to being a head coach for the first time played in a big part in shaping me and my coaching philosophy. I don't try to copy them, but definitely learn from them, take the good etc. To answer your question briefly, I would say the way I coach is a combination of coaches I have worked with/under and evolution of my own personality.

As far as programs, I think it depends on where you are at. Especially at the high school level. At the school I am at now, we are a high academic, big in football tradition private school but a small enrollment of less than 350 students total. We will probably have 60 kids or less in the entire program. Who will we try to "emulate"? While circumstances may be different and enrollment may be less than it was 10 years ago, our identity remains the same. We are going to be a run first on offense based on discipline, deception, and doing just a few things very well. On defense, we are going to keep it simple, let our kids run around and play, and on special teams we are going to be aggressive as can be. I think all this comes from a combination of the past and what each of us as coaches individually brings to the table....hope this helps..great question

I look at programs that are successful with similar roster sizes and socioeconomic factors. I try to see if we can use/do what they do. I look at other sports. What do they do or why do I connect/relate to them.

I once hear a guy say football coaches want a recipe but they don’t want to learn to cook. I think it’s a valid analogy. Many guys want to have a step by step blueprint instead of learning the little tweaks that come through experience and experimenting.

^That right there. I'm going into my 3rd year as a Head Coach and I failed miserable at doing these things right here. This off-season/lockdown time I have been researching teams that have rosters my size and honestly just high school teams. The only thing I have remotely looked at that is college is some stuff that TCU does on Defense (I'm late to the koolaid party with that stuff...lifetime Offense guy here). Everything else has been High School.

I've also learned that I do take some philosophical things from "big time coaches" but I have found that over the last few months I'm just going to be me. Be the coach you wanted. Learn what motivates your players. Some kids you can dog cuss; some you need to love on them. In short...BUILD RELATIONSHIPS. What makes great coaches is being true to who you are. Kids can pick up on cliche stuff. Theyre not stupid. I don't even like the idea of reading a book and just making it gospel (scheme, philosophy, etc...). Can you get ideas from it, of course. But, saying this is what we need to do doesn't work year in and year out. Every place is different. Every kid is different. Sorry for that rant.

morris hit the nail on the head. We over-complicate things. Offensively speaking there is too much "read this guy" now days if you ask me. Hardly anyone will just line up and run a play downhill. Defensively, there aren't any "Brick Walls" anymore. Most teams will just let you get yards and eventually you will just mess up...chances are because you're doing too much. You can search my posts and I was drinking that guru koolaid as well. I think the key to this profession is not necessarily trying to "emulate" someone but just doing what works for you and your program.

I think this is a great topic. It might go in a little different direction but I think it all fits.

Coach brought up a good point about reading everyone. Do a skill inventory of all the things you ask a QB to do and then think about his replacement if something happens. Some of the stuff we ask a kid to do is crazy. It’s far more than what he is asked to do in school on a regular basis.

Look at your OL and think about it. Scheme, technique, if turns and all of that is happening in about 3 seconds. Then what happens if they throw something at you that is not typical. We all face good DCs and then we face crazy DCs that do some completely unsound things but can get away with it.

I’ve bounced around different ideas and system but I coached MS a long time before moving up. It let me experiment and also taught me how to simplify. My first year as a HS HC I tried to do WAY too much. If I had simplified we would of performed better. That’s on me.

I relate much better to lower socioeconomic players. My ideal numbers are 60 kids 9-12. It fits who I am and my experience. I grew up loving UNVL and the Fab Five in basketball. Something about the way they played connected with me. I love Paul Westheads approach to basketball and the idea of the triangle offense. I like Coach Pop’s approach to things. I’m realizing that those ideas are where I’m ending up in football.

Briles once said that football isn’t hard. We make it much harder than what it is. My HS HC used to say football is blocking and tackling. Don’t make something easy hard. It reminds me of another coach that is very well known in KY. He retired and did a clinic on his offense and I was blown away by how extremely simple and nonrigid it was. It was very fluid. If a good athlete can’t do something then just have him do what he is good at. Develop the kid but don’t bang your and his head against the wall trying to turn him into something he isn’t. Sorry for the long post/rant.

There's nothing wrong trying to emulate (if that's right word) a coach or program that fits your personality-philosophy so long as you coach as you know how-tweak it for your situation.

i.e., emulate, not impersonate.

Back in the '70s if Bo Schembechler had put an outhouse on the 50-yard line of Michigan Stadium the next day half the HS fields in the state would have had one too.

This.  

Take what you like from people and mold it into your own.  Don't try and be hard ass like Saban or Meyer if you aren't a hard ass (just an example not a shot at anyone) cause kids see through fake quicker than quick.  Be yourself and try and grow as a coach just because this guy does it that way doesn't mean it's going to work for you.  The best football mind and coach I ever worked with was a flaming a$$hole like making kids and coaches cry every day type.  I learned so much from him.  But I am not like him and never could be.  Learn and incorporate things you value above all else.

There is no one right way. So to say I want emulate A would be wrong. Especially when B-Z have real merit.
But the easiest is my first boss who’s tombstone will read “beat their as$.” Be physical and execute. He never said the part about execute, but he believed it. 4-4 defense man and 3 deep calls. 2 call to be precise, and inside veer and counter trey left and right. Practice were IV right over and over and over and over....2.5 hrs long, full pads. Maybe 10 minutes of Indy. You were not going to take away IV. 

I am not an option guy, and in fact I would rather practice punt than practice option. And i despise 2.5 practices  and full padded practices. I didn’t use to. But I completely buy execution and physicality, and I am convinced that they are one in the same. And that is just broad overview as there are so many things I have decide to make my own ideas. In fact I am a plagiarist. None of its mine, I am not smart enough to arrive at on my own. I didn’t even get the minimalist offense from my first boss. I got it from the DTDW guys. I am not, never will be a DTDW guy. I also stole the off tackle thing from them. Not completely. But a large majority of it.
chip Kelly-practicing fast
practice time- guy at air force
limit, planning reps- any number of guys from the cool clinic.
What I want my offseason to look like in part- mcnally

As somebody else likes to say, I dont enough time to type it all up here, but it is nowhere near 1 person, team, program I would emulate.