Trends in the offense vs. defense battle fun to watch
By Coach P | September 21, 2007
Looking back over the trends in football and how the offense and defense affect each other is a fun study. My dad told me once that when he was in high school nobody really blitzed much. Most of the teams he played against ran either a 50 defense (linemen head up on the center and tackles and outside shoulder of the TE and the backers head up on the guards) or some sort of 60 look (6 down linmen, 2 backers and 3 secondary guys). Everybody just sort of played “vanilla” and you always knew who to block. Defenses, in turn, became very good at “playing their positions”…each man doing his job and playing his area. Enter the wishbone. Oklahoma made a living for a long time by taking advantage of that defensive theory. The veer puts defensive players in “no win” situations by having the QB read what they do. There isn’t a pre-determined ballcarrier. I remember watching a game a couple of years ago on ESPN Classic. It was a game from the 70’s between Notre Dame and, I believe, Oklahoma. Both teams were running the wishbone and both teams were running a 50 defense (both of which are distant memories in college now.) Then people started blitzing more so that the offense couldn’t just tee off on defense. What college coaches started realizing was that if they got away from the old “read and react” defenses which often took defensive linemen a couple of years to learn and get strong enough to do and went to more active, attacking, “go get the ballcarrier” type defenses they could recruit these slightly undersized but fast and athletic guys and play them earlier making recruiting easier. They took guys who would have been LB’s and made DE’s out of them. They took guys who would have been DE’s and made DT’s out of them. Speed became a premium on defenses. Eventually the offenses had to adjust. The old “you have him” blocking schemes didn’t work anymore because the linemen didn’t know where “he” was going. Now the spread offense is all the rage. It’s all based off of zone blocking. The linemen don’t have a man, they have a gap. “Step to your gap and take what comes” is now the predominate thinking in most blocking schemes. This is where the trickle down affect comes in. High schools tend to follow the lead of the colleges. Fifteen years ago most of the high schools in our area were in either a 50 look or a 60 look. We saw them week in and week out. Fifteen years ago we were in a 50 defense running the wishbone and the old Colorado I-Bone (the veer run from more of a power-I look). Today we are in a 3-3 (or a 3-5 as some call it) and running the spread. I keep thinking “what will people come up with next?” I’d say for a preview..watch what Urban Meyer is doing with the spread at Florida. Watching the evolution of the spread is amazing…I just wonder what defenses are going to come up with in the next 10 years to stop it.
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Kickoff rule changes the game
By Coach P | September 19, 2007
While there is no question that we will have to play “wait and see” with how the new kickoff rule in college affects injury rates, there is also no question that, strategically speaking, it is huge. I agree with what I heard on TV last Saturday. This changes the game like no rule has since offensive linemen were allowed to use their hands. All of the sudden, coaches have to actually work on kickoff and kickoff return during the week. They have to actually use some strategy rather than just sending the kickoff team out and then huddling up the defense on the 20 yard line. Now there are things to think about like…Do we kick deep?…Do we squib?…Do we pop it up to a certain person? Also, field position can be dramatically affected from what I have seen so far. I’ve seen several drives starting out around midfield instead of the 20 or 25. Offensively, we can’t just think “Let’s get a few 1st downs and try to change field position.” Now it’s “We need points out of this” You know what it reminds me of? High school kickoffs.
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Time Management
By Coach P | September 14, 2007
Time management in practice is something we all struggle with no matter what level of football we coach. There never seems to be enough time to get everything done. At the youth level, this is particularly difficult. In the few years I coached at the youth level we practiced Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays for two hours a night. This gave us a paltry six hours of practice a week. When you factor in warm-up and stretch time (and kids running in late), in reality, we were left with about five hours or so a week. How did we get everything done? Well, in all honesty, we probably didn’t a lot of the time. So what do you do if you can’t get everything done every week? Here’s some tips I got from a more experienced youth coach when I got started that I have carried with me into my high school career.
1. Three words…prioritize, prioritize, prioritize! Whether from filming and watching games
or just from things you saw during the game, figure out what you need to work on the most.
Make a list, in order of importance, of all the things you think you need to work on. Figure out
how long you think you will need to get each one done (and always overestimate the time you
think it will take…things always take longer on the practice field than they do in your head) and
work your way down the list. Don’t cut short the amount of time you spend on things that need a
lot of work just to get to something that doesn’t.
2. Be organized. Never go into a practice “winging” it. Not only will you waste time but you will
forget things. Before the week starts have a schedule of what needs to be worked on each night
and how much time you are going to spend on each thing. Remember to be flexible though.
Don’t go into the week with the idea that your weekly schedule is set in stone and you aren’t
going to change it. At the end of each practice, gather the coaching staff together and decide if
you need to change the next practice schedule. Was there something that didn’t go as well as
you’d hope and you feel it’s important and needs more time? Put it in the next practice schedule.
Also remember to be prepared to scrap something if it’s not working. If you’re trying a new play
and the kids just aren’t getting it, don’t waste a bunch of time. Even if it’s a good idea, scrap it.
3. Keep things simple. Don’t try to do too much. You don’t need a lot of offense or defense to be
successful at the youth level. Don’t try to do more than you have time to master. Remember, a
few mastered plays will win you more games than a bunch of plays you are just “ok” at.
I hope some of this has helped. Remember, the key thing at the youth level is to keep it simple and keep it fun. The key thing to time management at any level is to not try to do too much. Never do more than you have time to master. If you aren’t sure whether you have too much offense or defense…you probably do. Good luck on your season!
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