Some More 8-2-1 Kickoff Info.

Looks like the 8-2-1 KOR is here to stay!  Unfortunately I could not talk the ol' HBC into using it this year where I'm at, but that's fine.  The 8-2-1 is not the only game in town, but as you can see from Coach Hoover's post, it's more than likely here to stay.

Anyhow, just a nugget for the folks that check back here often.  Once the season is over, I will get back to posting more often, so please be patient with me!

Duece

TGOG Film

Well, it's finally here!  For those that have doubted the technique, a dear friend of mine, and colleague, Coach Barry Hoover, who runs Coach Hoover's Football Coaching Site, has done all the leg work for me in finding the proper cut-ups for the film and putting it all together.  I can take no credit here, Coach Hoover's a fine individual, who by the way, can tear up some BBQ!!!  Anhow, here is the film, hope everyone enjoys it!

Some other things to look at this off-season:

Brophy stirring the pot with Florida State and Mickey Andrew's famous "jet" technique and pass rush technique in his latest blog post.  He also has another good post on the "In, At, Out" Drill for LB's.

Some other sites to check out are in my blog roll.  Always give these guys a look, there's some good stuff out there!

Smart Football
Hit Em' Hard
Spread Football
Blitzology
Compete in All Things

These are just a few in my blog roll.  Great stuff out there written by great coaches that take time out of their busy schedules to help us out.  Thanks guys!!!  Dog days of summer are here, don't get lacidasical!!!!  Season's right around the corner.

Duece

University of Nebraska Linebackers Clinic

I had the opportunity, back in December to watch the University of Nebraska practice for their bowl game against the University of Georgia Bulldogs.  After that practice, the coaches held a small breakout session that was quite informative.  Since I've been a LB's coach over the past 3 seasons, I figured I'd go check out their LB's coach and see what he had to say.  Needless to say it was a very informative session, and here are my notes from the clinic.  Hopefully you can find some good information in this stuff like I did.  If you are interested in their defensive backs, Coach Hoover went and listened to their DB coach speak, and you can check out his post on the matter here.

Linebackers

·         Tackling Progression

o   start from scratch

·         8 Drill Categories

o   Agility

§  General footwork

§  Types of game movements

·         Duplicate and repeat game movements

o   Watch film to see how to do this (never lies)

·         Make players bored with your drills

§  Quick Box

·         Align a 5 yard box with LB's facing coach.  LB approaches and coach points to cone, LB must get to cone, and then react to coach's next signal. 

·         Great change of direction drill with constant movement

§  10 Dots

·         Align dots or cones in a series and have LB's try to get through them as fast as possible

§  Flip Hips

·         Use a line and stay on that line

o   LB must sprint

o   Don't make drill predictable

§  45 Degree Break

·         LB drops away from you and reacts to your pointer

·         LB should break and open hips when you change the pointer

·         If the LB jogs, then simply make him keep running until he gets the idea

o   Footwork

§  1st step is based on the RB's movement

§  They take a lateral step and replace

§  They move with that shuffle until something declares

§  Shuffle Drill

·         10 yards

·         LB's shuffle between yard markers (1 yard), back and forth staying between the tick marks (use dummies)

§  Shuffle Break Drill

·         Same as shuffle drill, but at the end make them break and intercept a pass, or scoop and score

§  Shuffle with bags

·         Good drill with high reps

·         1st LB on command shuffles to end of 1st dummy and reacts to coaches command to either go forward (sprint to the next dummy), or break and cross over to the opposite side.

·         Once 1st LB goes, 2nd LB aligns on same side as the 1st LB on 1st dummy.  Both will then react to the coach's command.

·         The 3rd LB will then repeat what the 2nd LB did, so that you don't have guys standing around waiting on 1 guy to do the drill.

§  Leverage

·         Don't give a RB a 2 way go

·         Set 1st cone 3 yards deep and 2nd cone 5 yards deep

·         Put RB between the 2 cones

·         LB aligns on deeper cone

·         RB will run to shallow cone and can either cut upfield or cut back (no juking)

·         If RB cuts back, LB makes good physical tackle

·         If RB cuts upfield, then LB must flatten and run feet, driving like crazy as he has no leverage.

o   Drill is done to prevent the cutback

§  Double Leverage Drill

·         Same as leverage but now with 2 LB's

o   Double the work

o   Same reactions for both LB's

§  Space

·         LB aligns on hash and WR on top of #'s

·         Coach throws ball to WR (can just make motion if you can't throw-better this way b/c WR doesn't have to catch the ball)

o   If you don't throw it, have coach hold WR for a second to mimic game speed on fast screen

·         LB attacks landmark and does not allow WR to cutback (similar to leverage drill but done in a much larger space)

·         WR goal to get 10 yards, LB goal to stop him from getting 10 yards

§  Shuffle-Alley-Shuffle

·         RB starts out jogging down yardline, and will alternate between jogging and sprinting (you can control with whistle if need be)

·         LB should shuffle when RB jogs (don't give up the cutback, backside leverage) and sprint with shoulders square when RB sprints

·         RB has 2 way go after 3 or 4 reps and can cut back or try and out run the LB

o   Vs. cutback LB makes tackle, Vs. run away LB runs feet and makes leverage tackle (combo of leverage drills)

o   Blocks

§  Shock the blocker (head and hands)

§  Shock and then get off

§  Keep it competitive

§  Shock sled

·         Sled they have they use in early season and off-season

§  Shock drill (vs. a man)

·         Set up OL and LB with LB in a shade in one direction or the other

·         LB/OL should be the same distance apart as they are in a game

·         Have OL execute a scoop or zone block, LB should attack (shock) the blocker and then get by with a push-pull move (doesn't care to rip, only after push-pull does he tell his guys to duck their arm under)

·         Set up a cone to either side that the LB/OL cannot go outside of

·         LB should shock the OL, release and then burst upfield

·         Can do this drill in multiple groups

o   Tackling

§  Leverage drill

§  3 yard box

·         RB on 1 end, LB on the other of the 3 yard box

·         On command RB will move lateral between cones, while LB shuffles to mirror him

·         On command, RB attacks LB head up (no juking) and LB must make a face-up tackle and drive legs

o   Similar to "mirror drill"

§  Low Tackle

·         Tackler wants his body at the center of gravity of the ballcarrier

·         Step on the RB's toes

·         Wrap and twist once contact made

o   Wrap dummy, land on dummy and then roll completely over

o   Pass rush

§  Attack the middle of the RB & flip hips to get by

§  LB should slap RB hands down as he's flipping the hips

§  Can create this using a standup dummy and have LB blitz the dummy, slap at the dummy and flip hips to get around the dummy

·         Once clear of the dummy LB should accelerate

·         Can also do this drill to imitate a blitzer coming off the edge

o   Play on Ball

§  Teaches the strip

·         "Start the lawnmower"

o   Many kids nowadays not familiar with lawnmower tech

§  Key is to lift elbow and punch the ball downward

·         Only done when ballcarrier is secured

§  Can add scoop and score to any agility drill

§  Play on Ball

·         Reach with long arm, knock ball down and turn back to QB

o   Make them do the drill 1-armed -no pass interference

§  Put their near hand in their pants to do this

·         Reads

o   They key RB's, because when you focus on something further away you can see more than focusing on something that is close

§  OL can give false keys

o   If LB's having a tough time reading, vary their depth off the ball

o   Make their first step lateral, then have keys that make them attack downhill

§  "Slow til' you know"

§  All their drills are shuffle and read

§  This depends on the leverage of the LB too

·         This also depends on what your opponents run

o   They see a ton of inside/outside zone

Links!!!

Just a tidbit on some things I 'm reading and other happenings out there on the Internet.  Sorry for the lack of postings, but the book comes first, and the blog is suffering.  Please bear with me as I do have some good posts in the works.

Brophy's been beating the band over at Cripes! Get Back to Fundamentals blog.  The latest post on how to download and cut up the NFL's "All-22" films, is, pardon my French...BAD ASS.  Great job big dawg!  Other good ones here lately have been some stuff on Bo Pelini (one of my favorite Over/Under guys), as well as Brophy's 1 high Nickle stuff (which plays in to some of my older posts on defending the spread with a one-high look).

Coach Hoover's been working his tail off too, with some good articles on ball security, using the 8-2-1 kickoff return to limit concussions and injuries (for more 8-2-1 stuff go here), and Urban Meyer's passing concept known as Bullets.  As usual, Hoover's posts are clean, clear and full of some awesome information.

The next blog, is Smart Football.  To be honest, if you aren't checking Smart Football daily, what the hell are you doing then???  Really guys, take the time out to read this blog...DAILY, the popular author of The Essential Smart Football, Chris Brown, has one of the best football blogs around.  The blog is filled with not only football X's and O's, but also philosophy, practice organization information, and even the occasional business and life posts.  What more could you want all in one blog?

Spread Football is a cool blog with several nice tidbits for the spread happy coach.  Some of my favorites have been the post on double slants (always a favorite of mine), the post on option from pistol sets and especially the post on Alabama's smash concept.  A very well thought out and clean blog, so what are you waiting for?  Go check out Spread Football!!!

A couple of new sites I haven't had a chance to read all the posts on are Coach Vint's site and Coach Mac's Play Fast Football.  The few posts I have read, have been flat awesome!  Coach Vint's post on building a championship culture are second to none.  These are two new blogs I'm checking out, and from what I've seen, they will be added to the reading list...shortly.

So many  blogs...so little time!

Again, sorry about the delay in posts, maybe this will wet your whistle for a while until I can get finished with the book.  Things are looking good though and coming right along with it, but when you are a perfectionist it probably takes a bit longer than it really should.  Anyhow, please be patient with me!

Duece

Smart Football Store and Other Links



Want some links?


Just saw this today, but you've got to check out Smart Football's store!  A little (ok, maybe a LOT) Air Raid biased, but some cool stuff nonetheless.  Just in time for the holidays folks, so get your Smart Football gear and as always continue to read Smart Football's blog.





Kick Ass!


Brophy has been lighting up the postings here lately with several awesome tidbits of information, from coaching the under front to Bill Walsh's practice schemes and philosophy, all of these can be found at Cripes Get Back to Fundamentals.  As always Brophy, top notch stuff.

I was checking out Spread Football today and came across their new message board.  Seems like it will be a good one!  Check out the No Huddle Spread message board today!

If you're not into no huddle spread, and are maybe a more "3 back attacker" well, I've got another message board I recently joined that might be the right fit for you.  Coach Calande has his message board dedicated to the "dreaded double wing" and the 46 Gambler defense that has some good discussion topics on it.  Check out his site, and let me know what you think!




Ahh, the Gambler...


Coach Hoover continually churns out great posts.  His latest on making highlight videos and how Georgia lost the SEC Championship are nothing short of stellar posts.  He's also got some great links over there, and good "how to" videos in terms of technique of coaching various positions.  I once ate ribs with this guy, and all I can say is, he writes much cleaner than he eats (wink-gotcha buddy)!!!!

As always, go check out my alter ego at The 12th Man Blog.  Here I get away from X's and O's and Jimmies and Joe's, and pretty much lay it on the line how I feel.  Don't really care whether it's right, wrong, or even politically correct.  So grab a beer, or your favorite "toddy" and come on over to The 12th Man....it'll be fun!

These are just some tidbits I wanted to throw out there, since it is the season of giving.  Hope everyone has a safe and Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!!




Dont' have too much fun this holiday season!

 


 
Duece

The 8-2-1 Kickoff Return

For most of my coaching career, I have been a 5-4-2 kickoff return guy.  It's just what I was taught and how I did things when I got my chance to coach.  Now I've had teams in certain years that had kickoff returns for touchdowns here and there, but the most in a single season was only two.  There were several (and I mean SEVERAL) seasons where we had none!  Anyhow, I went and watched a local high school play in a playoff game last season, and I saw something I had never seen before.  They had eight guys on the line with only three guys being back deep!  Now I thought maybe their opponent was known for onsides kicks or something.  I watched the entire game as the opponent kicked the ball deep and gave up good returns for great field position.  The average starting field position that particular night was the 38 yard line.  Now these were on deep kicks too, the opposing team had a kicker that could put the ball consistently inside the five yard line, so as you can see the field position stat was pretty good (also considering one went for a touch back).  Lucky for me I don't go to too many football outings without my handy flip video, and so I recorded these kicks.  The following week this very same team was playing nearby so I traveled to see them again, and sure enough, they were still using the same kickoff return scheme.  After that, I just knew I had to find out more about it, and I did what any good, persistent, nagging football coach yearning for more information did, and I called a member of the coaching staff.   I ended up getting the specifics of the scheme and even got to look at (but unfortunately not keep) some more film of the scheme.  So back home I go and I delve into making this thing work on my middle school football team.  What sold me was when the coach told me they had been doing this for the past two seasons (now going on three), and their "block percentage" had increased almost three times!  I asked "block percentage", what the hell is that?!".  As it was explained to me, that is the number of your players making contact and maintaining contact during the kick return versus the total number of defenders being used on the kickoff team.  He said prior to running this scheme, their average block percentage was around 25 percent.  That means out of 11 players on the kickoff team, only three of them were being blocked.  His team's average starting field position was the 26 yard line, and they had not returned a kick for a touchdown since the 2006 season.  Upon installing the 8-2-1 scheme, here were the new numbers:

• Block percentage went up from 25% to 73% in first season and 79% in second season.
• Field position increased to the 32 yard line in the first season and the 39 yard line in the second season.
• The first year they installed the scheme, they returned a total of four kickoffs for touchdowns and had 14 kick returns cross midfield that season.  The second year of the scheme, they returned 6 kicks for touchdowns and had 17 kick returns cross midfield.

I was hooked, but was still unsure if it would work at my level.  I brought it back to my head coach and he nixed the idea almost immediately.  The reasoning he gave is that teams would pooch and sky kick you to death, which is a fair assumption seeing as how much open space there is.  So we enter this season, with me being an interim head coach and after the third game of the season, I thought to myself, hell if this is my ship, I'm going to do things MY WAY!  I installed this in one practice and we stayed in it the rest of the season.  Here were our numbers for this past season:

• Block percentage increased from 22% to 70%.
• Field position increased from the 37  yard line to the 49 yard line (we don't get too many deep kicks).
• One kickoff return for a touchdown increased to six kickoff returns for touchdowns (seven total on the year, a school record by three).  We had 1 kickoff return cross midfield in the first three games (the one returned for a touchdown) and that number increased to nine by the end of the season.

Now that I've shared with you the numbers, let's talk about the scheme and installation.

Personnel

Most of us have grown out of having linemen on special teams (I'm not a hater, hell I'm a former OL myself), but for those that do, now's the time to evolve.  This scheme is made for mostly defensive backs, linebackers, running backs, wide receivers and the occasional athletic defensive end.  The front eight need to be able to run and cover a guy man to man, but only for a short period of time.  The upbacks need to be fearless guys who are not afraid to catch a kick in traffic.  A good idea here is to think punt returner.  The upbacks do need to be able to block in space, but don't sacrifice blocking for being able to catch the football in traffic.  The returner, can be your typical kick returner, but he doesn't need to be a "missile", he needs to have the ability to read "cloudy" and "clear" and know how to run to daylight based on the blocks occurring in front of him.

Alignment

8-2-1 Alignment

Ok, the front line is a mirror of four players, there are two guards, two tackles, two ends and two wings.  They align about two to three yards off the 50 yard line and are facing forward looking at the kicker and the football.  There are two upbacks, whose depth depends on the kicker's ability and whether or not the opposing team likes to sky kick or not.  As a base rule at the junior high level, I aligned my guys and the 35 yard line (this is assuming we knew nothing about our opponent's kicker).  The middle returner aligned at average kick depth based on film or pre-game scouting.  If we didn't know anything about the opponent's kicker then we aligned him at the 25 yard line.  Remember, you will have to adjust these some for high school ball, so bear with me.

Width alignments had the guards between the hash mark and the middle of the field with both tackles aligning on the hash marks.  The ends would align halfway between the hash and the bottom of the numbers.  The wings would align just off the bottom of the numbers.  The Upbacks basically stacked behind the ends, splitting the difference between the hash and the bottom of the numbers as well.  The returner would align in the middle of the field, splitting the hashes.

Assignment

Blocking assignments were VERY simple.  The blockers would begin their count from the closest sideline(this is assuming a middle return, which is all we ran last season, however the sky is the limit when it comes to the types of returns you can run), and would count until they got to their number.  The way it worked was this, since the the right tackle for instance (RT in the diagram) was the fourth player from the right side, he counted out four men and that was his man.  So for the Right wing, he would have one, the right end would have two, the right tackle would take three and the right guard had four.  We did not count the kicker in this scheme, the returner has to make the kicker miss.  Now I know what  you are saying, that leaves, two players unaccounted for, well how this works is that the upbacks are always responsible for the fifth guy from their respective sideline.  Here is how it looks on paper.



Middle Return

Technique

The technique the front wall blockers use is very similar to the shuffle technique used by defensive backs or basketball players.  The player will open in the direction of his man (or zone if using a zone scheme) and will shuffle out, staying low and keeping a good wide base and low center of gravity.  As the defender "eats up" the blocker's cushion, and declares which side he is going, the blocker will then turn and run with the defender.  If the defender decides to try to switch lanes, the blocker will simply flip his hips, much like a defensive back doing a zone turn would and then "wall off" the defender from the other side.

Blocking is not a great word for the exactly what the blockers do.  These players are quite simply put, "in the way".  I coached my guys this past season, to get on a hip and stay on a hip, but most importantly "be in the way" during a return.  In some of the video clips you will see, we don't do a very good job of blocking, but we are in the way enough the defender loses lane integrity and a seam is opened up for the returner.

Speaking of the returner, when teaching this guy how to return, patience is key.  He needs to have a good burst of speed, but does not need to be a "bottle rocket".  I link the type of running he does to that of a good zone tailback, in that he gets the ball and lets the blocks set up and lets the defenders declare where they are going to be.  Once this occurs the returner simply "runs to daylight", finding a seam and exploding through it.

Other types of Returns

Two other returns are left and right, and are blocked in this manner.  The side away from the call will block as they would in a middle return (shown above), and the call side, will begin their count in negating the first two men from the sideline. 

As you can see here's how the new count works for a return called to the right.  The right wing (RW) is going to block number three, the end has number four and so forth, while the upbacks pick up the one and two on the called side.

There are also zone returns, where each player blocks a gap in one direction much like a slide protection would work with the upbacks blocking the first defenders to show.  The possibilities are endless here as you can have the front eight block the gap to their right, left, inside or outside, depending on how you want to handle the return.  The zone returns are a great way to handle teams that like to cross their players to confuse the man scheme and it is recommended to have both schemes in place.

Dealing With the Bunch Attack

What do you do when dealing with the bunch attack?  This is pretty simple, and is handled by the front eight as well as the two upbacks.  The upbacks and wings drop back 10 yards off the ball, the wings are centered between the hash mark and the top of the numbers,while the upbacks are inside the hash marks.  The front eight, will align over the ball, but now the guards and tackles will be inside the hash marks, with the ends aligning on the hashes. 

If the kickoff team then spreads out, the kickoff return team will simply align as they normally would against a regular kickoff.  It should be noted that when facing teams that do this type of kickoff scheme, it is better suited for a zone blocking scheme rather than man.

Concerns about the 8-2-1

Some concerns many coaches have about the 8-2-1 is all the open field that it presents when you look at it on paper.  Many coaches elect to sky or pooch kick to try and put the 8-2-1 in a bind, however this is easily negated.  First, the upbacks handle all sky kicks, and they do so by giving a "sky" call to the front line.  Once a sky call is heard by the front line, they quit dropping and put their foot in the ground and begin to block.  Now the returner does not have a defender bearing down on him while trying to receive the football.  When in doubt the upback should always fair catch any sky kick.  I made this mandatory last season, and it worked quite well for us.  Later in the season, I gave my guys a bit more freedom to do what they wanted with the ball and it worked quite nicely.  One thing to note is that when an upback gets the football, the returner should replace him in the blocking scheme. 

Advantages of the 8-2-1

Players seem to "fit" better into this scheme more than any other I've run.  I always seem to have a bunch of leftover defensive back/wide receiver type players who one way or the other don't get much playing time.  Here is a way to get those guys on the field.  Remember the blocks are the greatest and all they have to do is "be in the way".  Most of those kids can and will do that job quite effectively.

It makes the "wedge buster" obsolete.  No longer can guys run down field and simply "tee off" on your wedge players.  This in turn could help lead to a reduction in concussions (Thanks Coach Hoover), which as we all know in college and the NFL this has been a serious issue that has changed the standard kickoff over the past few seasons.  When I asked my guys at the end of this past season what they liked about the 8-2-1, the majority said that they no longer felt like a "target", which made enough sense to me to stick with the scheme.

Onside kicks are immediately negated.  First you are basically playing with your hands team out there.  Since most guys are skill position, handling the football is the least of their worries.  The eight men on the line also immediately reduces the kicking team's chances of a successful recovery.

The kick returner can treat the return similar to a zone tailback.  No longer do you need to look for that kamikaze returner who is fearless and will run full bore into traffic.  Now all you need is a runner who has good vision and can cut off blockers.

Sorry it has been so long between posts, I'm still trying to get my ducks in a row, and really hitting the book hard after such a grueling season.  I do have a request to make, if anybody can give me a hand with wanting to share any of their 46 defense resources, please hit me up at footballislifeblog@yahoo.com.  I'm in need of some major improvements coming into next season, and I'm always willing to look at new ideas.  Hit me up and we can talk.  Hope all that are in the playoffs are still working hard and motivating those young men to do their best.  This can be one of the most trying times of the season, but remember...IT'S WORTH IT!!!

Duece