The Dog Days of Summer

Well, it's as close to summer as we are going to get, and most of you should have your teams in the weight room and on the field running routes and pushing sleds etc.  One of the age-old problems with the summer off-season programs is attendance.  I constantly hear coaches asking "How can I up my attendance at the weight room?".  Well, that's what this post is for!  I'm going to share some things with you, that I have done in the past to "spice" up the summer off-season. 




Spice it up!!!

Let's not forget, summertime, to the high-schooler, is a time for getting away from the usual grind, hanging out with friends, and for some, a chance to make a little extra money.  For your football player, there are going to be a TON of distractions tugging at his schedule, and he is going to have to make choices.  You are in competition with girls, family vacations, hanging out with friends, and making money.  Tough competition to say the least!  If you know this going in, then you will be able to design an off-season program that will let YOUR weight room be THE place to be in the summer.  For those coaches that have the old stagnant ideas of "they should be here", or "if it meant as much to them as it does to me", please, don't read any further.  If you can't expand and adapt your off-season program to the football player of the 2000's, then it's time to hang it up my friend.  I'm going to list some things I've done to increase the participation in the weight room and in my off-season program.  This is NOT a cookbook on how to get kids to come to the weight room, yet a guide that may open up your mind to some of the items your off-season program may need.

I'm going to spread this one out a bit, talking about the following over the next several posts:

• Facilities
• Staff
• Workouts-Mini Camps
• Competition
• Team Building

In this post I'm going to talk about facilities and staff.  These are two very important elements in any off-season program.  So, here we go!

Facilities
The first item of importance are your facilities.  Not all of us are blessed with a state-of-the art weight room and practice facilities, so please don't roll your eyes when I mention this.  If you want to compete with your football player's girlfriend, then the weight room needs to at least be appealing to the senses.  Now I'm not advocating everyone head to the A.D. right away to rebuild the weight room, believe me, I've been some places where not only would mentioning revamping the weight room get you laughed at, it would even get you fired!  Make due with what you have.  It doesn't cost that much money to touch up paint on the walls and equipment, or even hang some nice posters on the wall.  Make sure the bathrooms work, and there's a secure place for the players to secure their belongings. 

Make your own posters with slogans for the upcoming season, or have photos from previous seasons.  One thing I did, was I had team photos all around the room in our weight room, with the year and record located on the bottom of each picture.  I also had photos of previous players in their college uniforms hung in an area we called the "Wall of Fame".  These little items will go a long way to giving your weight room that "championship builder" look that kids are searching for.  Also, make sure all the equipment is working and in it's proper place.  Nothing is a bigger turn-off than going to do leg curls, but you can't find the pin to adjust the weights.  Your players should NOT have to improvise when lifting or training.  I cannot stress this enough, all this does is put doubt in their minds as to why they are there instead of at the movies or at the beach.



Nice beach!

Another important item is cleanliness.  The weight room should NEVER be dirty!  All weights and workout components should be put up at the end of each session.  This allows players to get in and get their workout done.  This is very important with older players who may also be trying to manage a summer job.  Time is of the essence, so make sure your weight room is not only clean, but ergonomic as well.  Divide up the weight room into common stations if possible.  Don't make your players travel from one side of the weight room to the other, just to go from squats, to power cleans.  This leads to distractions such as socialization, which deter from the players getting their workouts completed. 



This doesn't look productive


The atmosphere in the weight room is of utter importance when attracting your football players.  Young people nowadays love listening to music.  A stereo system in the weight room is a must.  If you don't have the means for a stereo system, see if one of the players will volunteer one.  If not, at the very least let them listen to their IPOD's, as this keeps them in their comfort zone.  A word of caution though, only allow the players to use one earpiece at a time, that way if you have to give instructions quickly, or to warn of danger etc., your comments will be heard.  Allow the players to pick the music, but only if it's clean.  I usually had them tune in to a local radio station if possible, that way I knew the music would be appropriate for the age group.  This is just another simple "comfort" you can add to your weight room to make your players feel more at home when they are there.

If you have outside facilities such as a track or field, and you have workout components for these areas (sleds, parachutes, cones etc.), then make sure these are stored/located in an area that is easily accessible.  Make sure if you have something planned for the track or field that day, you set it up before hand, again, time is of the essence.  The quicker you can get the players on their merry way, the less of a "task" working out becomes. 

If you use indoor facilities, such as a gymnasium, make sure it is picked up and ready to use.  I've rarely used the gym mostly because I've been at places where the basketball coach was a "touch-me-not" with his gym, but if you have this and can use it, by all means do so!  Again, have everything ready, nothing loses momentum more in a workout (or practice for that matter) than players waiting for you to set up drills.




I could use one of these!


Again, I'm not saying go out and tear down the old weight room for a new one, we all know that is out of the budget of 99% of the coaches who may read this.  Never look at what you CAN'T do, always focus on what you CAN do, this will make things a lot easier.  A simple coat of paint on a sled made some former players of mine think we had gotten something new.  I didn't have the heart to tell them, it was just their old sled with new paint on it!  Whatever it takes right!

Staff
You can't do an off-season program by yourself.  That being said, if you think it's difficult getting your players to the weight room in the summer, try getting your staff there!  I usually inform my staff that their stipend covers off-season workouts.  What I do is try and use simple math for the summer time.  I require the players to make 80% of their lifts in the summer, so the coaches should also have a requirement.  What I usually did was take the total number of lifting days and divide it by the amount of people I had on staff.  The most I ever had on staff was 8 (including myself), so we usually had around 33 lifting days, just take 33 and divide by 7 and that was the required amount of days each staff member was to be present.  This usually worked out to be four to five days, so I simply put it as coaches needed to each make a week.  I let them pick their weeks and we went from there.  Some would be there more than that.  I had an offensive line coach that was there almost every day.  What a lifesaver!  My last season as a head coach I was fortunate enough to have raised enough money fundraising that I could pay a 1/2 stipend to one of my assistant coaches and he was our strength and conditioning coach!  This was a 7 week period with 1 week of vacation.  Fancy title for the small amount of resources we had, but it worked.  It also helped that my coach looked like Arnold McMillan (well, not quite that big, but he was huge)!!! 

I also gave perks to the staff members who made the most days.  The one with the most days had the easiest pre-game assignment throughout the season.  The coaches who chose not to show up, or only show up the minimum amount got the tougher jobs.  You'd be surprised how a season of cleaning the visitor's locker room will motivate staff members to do their summer duty!  I've even given out everything from gift certificates to money for staff members who went above and beyond the call of duty in the summertime.  Coaches need to be rewarded too, remember they have families of their own, and use the summertime to vacation and spend time with loved ones.  I also had coaches that worked other jobs, work with your coaches, not against them.  Facilitate their participation, and they will be more motivated when they are working with the players.  Which leads me to my next point.




Even the "big dawgs" make time for family

Staff motivation in the off-season is key.  Most assistant coaches I've had have not been all that "geared up" for off-season lifting and conditioning.  This, to me, is no different than showing up to practice with a poor attitude.  Stress to your staff, that they need to bring their "A" game when it comes to enthusiasm.  Players feed off their coaches, and they can tell when you don't want to be there.  What does it say to a player, who is already wondering why he ditched the movies with his girlfriend, when he sees you looking unmotivated and lackluster?  It tells him you don't care to be there, then why should he?  I guarantee the next day this player is with his chick rather than in the weight room.  Again, make the weight room the place to be, this includes for the coaches.  I've asked coaches to leave that were withdrawn or unenthusiastic.  I figure your getting paid to be here, make that shit up if you have to! 




Coach Boom knows ENTHUSIASM!


Some of this sound harsh, especially to the assistant coach with the young wife and kids, and all this new free time with summer's off, however put the shoe on the other foot.  Especially those aspiring to be a head coach someday, it is your head on the chopping block on Friday nights.  You would want your staff to be at the weight room, so why do any different for the guy you are working for, remember the door swings both ways!

So now that we have facilities and staff taken care of, in the next post I will look in to the work-outs and doing your own mini-camps (if so allowed), and doing things to create competition.  Again, I'm sure there are many more methods than I have, I'm just sharing.  Heck, post some of your ideas in the comments section, let's see what's out there! 

Special shout out to Coach Hoover for helping me "spice" up the ol' blog logo!  Check out his site here to read more on a great passing concept known as levels. 

Later!




Til' we meet again!

Duece

The 4-3 Scream and Splatter

I came across this defense, by sheer accident (which you may download here) several years ago while helping a friend.  I had a phone call one evening from an old college friend who was the head coach (HC) and offensive coordinator (OC) at a small school in Southwest Florida (SWFL) and was facing a team that had an ultra-aggressive 4-3 defense.  He sent me some film on them, and was trying to figure out how to attack them with the split-back veer.  After watching several films on this opponent I was very intrigued to see the radicalness of the defense.  The interior tackles sat in 2I's most of the time, and the defensive ends (DE's) were in a radical tilt, almost ninety degrees to the traditional way of aligning.  The DE's looked right down the line of scrimmage (LOS) to the ball.  The outside linebackers (OLB's) were stacked right behind these ends at about four to five yards off the LOS.  The middle linebacker (MLB) was the same depth and directly over the center.  The DE's were the kicker though, they came off the LOS like missiles, and simple put, wrecked everything in their path.  It was quite astonishing to watch, and I could see why my friend was calling, as they were a very rambuncious bunch to try and move the football against.  The secondary seemed to be playing some sort of two deep man under coverage, maybe even a version of quarters.  The corners appeared to be in man with the safeties twelve to fifteen yards deep, and rocking back on the snap.  They would rotate the secondary into cover 3 when they got trips or twins, they never broke the box, always keeping their 4-3 intact.  The defense was aggressive and attacking in nature and they, simply put, got after your ass! 

The conversation, and films led me to try and research the defense, however, information was not easily obtained.  One day when posting on the Huey board, I had a coach, from Wisconsin respond to me and tell me about a "tilted 4-3" in their area that was similar to the defense I had been describing in my posts.  He told me to check out Lancaster High School, in Lancaster WI.  So I gave their head coach a call, and he directed me to their defensive coordinator (DC) who was very helpful.  He sent me information on the defense, and told me they got it from somebody out in California.  He did not elaborate but we spoke several times about his defense, the pros, the cons etc.  Over the years, from my first post about the defense, people have contacted me and asked me about it.  I wanted to put a post out here that some may use, to get a first-hand look at this defense.  I want to preface, I did not run this defense, I merely took some things out of it, that I will discuss later.  I am going to break down the defense from the ground up, and then go into what I used out of each section.  Hopefully this will shed light on a very aggressive and attacking 4-3, that some have never seen.  Shall we?

Defensive Line
In the Scream and Splatter (S&S) defense, all 4 of the down linemen are tilted at a forty-five degree angle to the LOS.  The basic shades are your standard over front shades with a one and five techniques to the weakside, and a three and nine technique to the strong side.  The defense I saw on film, did not do this, they had 2I's in the interior, and the strong end played a seven technique (inside shade of the tight end).  The reasoning behind the tilt is to better facilitate our old friend, block down, step down (BDSD).  The author of the defense explains that this allows them to execute the "splatter" technique against gap blocking schemes.  As far as defensive line manuals go, this one is not much different except for the tilt.  I got some film on Lancaster, and they are not your "war-daddy's" by any means, but they do get after it.  The main reason is the simplicity in the teaching of the defensive linemen (DL).  They key their "trigger" as it is called and react from there.  After that, they have the normal reactions to the blocking schemes that you see most four man front defenses doing these days. 

The other key for the DL is the actual "splatter" technique.  This is practiced daily, and there is a diagram in the packet they sent me of how to set up the splatter drill.  The interesting thing is they do not talk about depth or angle, they simply talk about getting off the ball, and coming down the LOS and attacking the upfield armpit of the blocker.  The diagrams basically speak for themselves, so I will not elaborate further.

I did not tilt all four of our linemen, the number one reason is that we were seeing so many zone teams, I felt it would allow our inside guys to be reached too easily.  I did tilt our DE's, but not radically like the SWFL team mentioned earlier.  We simply put our inside had down, and then turned our body inside enough to see the football.  I actually changed our term wrong arm to Lancaster's term splatter and it's quite a funny story.  In my first year as a DC at my last gig we were teaching kids the wrong arm technique when I overheard one young player tell another "why are we learning this, if it's the wrong way to do it".  Ahh, the teenage mind!  So, after that, we decided to call our wrong arm, the splatter.  The kids liked it, it made sense to them, and the rest is history!




"Gnarly dude"


Linebackers
The linebacker play in the S&S defense is what really caught my attention.  The way they taught it, seems overly aggressive, yet there was an effectiveness to it, that I bought in to.  All three linebackers (LB's) read the fullback, or near back in offset backfield sets.  The LB's had but one read, intersect the path of the FB.  That's it!  All they had to do, was to intersect that path, and leave the rest to the safeties behind them (we'll talk of that later).  This made for a defense that looked as though it was blitzing every down.  The LB's seemed almost a step ahead of the opposing offenses on film.  It was quite a sight to watch.  Now, I know what you are thinking, "Why not just run counter?".  You would be right, but the safety play behind it, made this nearly impossible.  The LB section shows the drill on how to teach the LB's to intersect the path of the fullback.  They set up trash cans and ran through all the various series of plays, and how the LB's should react to these (they called it the "Barrel Drill").  The other interesting thing is that they involved the safeties in this drill as well.  As you will see in their run fit section, this safety involvement is critical to the defense.

We took the basics of this read system and used it, however we added a few other things to it to help us with the counter runs and bootlegs.  Our MLB, had these exact reads, but our OLB's had a few other things added to it.  I also started using our safeties in run fit drills, and in inside run drill.  This payed huge dividends as it allowed the safeties to see just where they should fit, with out having to worry about the pass threatening them. 

Defensive Backs
The safeties were the crux of the S&S defense.  They were the "clean up" guys.  Basically, they made the LB's underneath of them "right" by fitting where needed.  Now, the S&S isn't for the faint of heart, as they sit in cover 0 all the time.  Yep, that's it, one coverage!   As you can see, they wanted to keep things simple.  So, back to the safeties and how they "fit" into the defense.  The safety on the action side of a run play, was no different than your quarters or 2 read safety in that he was the force player.  The backside safety was the kicker, he had to clean up all counter, bootleg, and reverses.  The backside safety made the LB furthest away from action, be able to "scream" to the football without fear of the cutback or the counter.  This was important because it led to the defense outnumbering the offense at the point of attack (POA).  This is exactly how I played it out of my 2 read/Blue coverage scheme as we've read before (go here if you haven't already). 

The corners in this defense are primarily man to man guys.  In the playbook you can see that they gave the corner 6 basic reads and worked those to death.  I've often had this philosophy myself, corners have a tough enough job, no need in worrying them about the run.  Well, the S&S is perfect for your cover corner. 

The S&S in Recent Years
I have not had the luxury of talking to Lancaster's coaches in over 3 years now, however the last time I talked to them, they were having some problems with spread formations, most notably 2x2 teams that ran zone read.  I have no doubt that they have come up with  a scheme to defeat these offensive tactics in the recent years, as many on the Huey board have said they still remain an elite team in Wisconsin. 

In Florida, my buddy tells me nobody runs the defense that got my interest started all those years ago.  It's a shame, as the coach that ran it, according to my friend had a very impressive record to go along with his defense.  Nonetheless, the defense has gone the way of the Dodo bird in that particular area.

I hope this was insightful to those who have been asking about the defense.  I think the S&S has excellent merits, and is a sound system that seems very simple to install.  I know it caught my eye when I first saw it, and I definitely stole all I could from the information I gathered on the S&S.  Please feel free to email me about this topic, however, please remember I did not run this defense in its entirety, only select portions.  Here is some footage I got from Lancaster, sorry about the cutup quality, I had to cut it myself.  Enjoy!

Other Happenings
Coach Hoover has a GREAT article on "How Much to Install".  He's a man after my own heart, especially linking to the great Tony DeMeo.

Football-Defense has a very good article on the basics of Turning a Program Around.  Very good read, and a very good site, I must say.

Over signing won't ruin the SEC, writes Chris Low in his ESPN blog.  Something tells me he's right, and I love Steve Spurrier's quote at the end of the article.  The Ol' Ball Coach is still a hoot!

Duece

2 Read/Blue Coverage Revisited

Ok, I know I said my next post was on the 4-3 Scream and Splatter, but I have had a TON of emails over the past few weeks asking me questions about some route combos giving Blue coverage some troubles.  Since there has been so many questions, I felt I would answer them on here and see if I could help out as many as possible.  So here goes.

Out by 2, Vertical by 1
This is the age old cover 2 beater.  Again, it's all in how you play it.  I'm going to described some things I've done in the past, you can take if from there.



1. It's all in the technique- The corner is the key here.  He HAS to squeeze #1's route to the safety, and not be concerned with the route by #2.  The corner will only come off of 1, when he sees the ball thrown to 2.  After he squeezes 1's route, he should be in a trail mode, with eyes on the QB, looking for the the throw to 2, or a wheel route by 2 (remember the corner in Blue is swing deep of 2, so he has the wheel route).  The curl/flat player, is also critical, in he needs to work to get to the throwing lane on the out by 2.  This can discourage the throw on the out, and allow the corner to carry the vertical of 1.  The other technique issue is the safeties alignment.  If he's too far inside, he cannot get to #1.  I have played the safeties as close as 2 yards outside #2 (I'm talking as if #2 is attached to the formation) to as wide as 5 yards.  Keep these things in mind before doing any of the following.
2. "Me" call- The me call tells the corner, that it's basically man and the corner will take the vertical and out by 1, and the safety will take the vertical and out by 2.  Anything else and they just zone their 1/4 of the field.  This still puts you in a bind, but is very sound if your safety is having trouble getting to #1's vertical route.  Also helps with any confusion you might have in the depth of routes (this happens quite often to the youngsters when installing Blue coverage).

3. Play true Quarters- If you do this, be prepared to adjust your front if you are a traditional Miami 4-3 Over front guy.  The curl/flat/swing deep of 2 player must have leverage on #2, so he must be in an outside alignment on #2.  If you are in the Under, no problem, same as if you run a 7 technique defensive end (DE) then you are ok.  Otherwise you are going to be changing your front to cover 1 possible route combo...not recommended.

Good Technique vs. Fade/Arrow route combo, corner must reroute #1 to SS.



Blue "Me" call



Quarters vs. Fade/Arrow Combo

 

Curl by 2, Post by 1
This is an old Quarters coverage beater, and can work on Blue coverage if not properly repped.  How I handle this is with repetitions in practice.  The corner has got to be communicating to the safety "IN, IN, IN" on the post route by #1.  The corner will high shoulder the post the entire time, as he does not have leverage to undercut it.  The safety will pedal out, and upon hearing the "IN" call by the corner will continue to pedal out, looking to work under the post, and still attempting to maintain over-the-top leverage on the curl route by #2.  The curl/flat player is your man here, as well as the inside hook player.  Their drops and angles must discourage the throw to #2. 




Post/Curl


Scissors
I saw this early in my career as a defensive back's (DB's) coach, and haven't seen it in a while.  Scissors is where #2 runs a corner route at the same depth that #1 runs a post route.  There are 2 trains of thought here, and neither are incorrect so long as you are consistent in your teaching.  The base rule for my Blue coverage is that the corner and safety NEVER cross, so when the safety communicates the "out" and the corner communicates the "in", we executed what we called a "banjo" technique where the safety broke and took the post, and the corner worked to take the corner route, basically switching men.  This was easy to teach, because we told them, yes both were vertical, but when they crossed 1 became 2 and 2 became 1 and your rules still hold true (safety= 2 is vertical, man 2, corner= 2 is vertical man 1). 
The other thing we did, when guys were struggling with banjo, was to tell them once it's man, it's man...STAY WITH YOUR DUDE!  That was even simpler than the above, and most kids I coached preferred it.  However, you need to be very careful with people trying to run pick or rub routes as this can turn into 6 quickly!




Banjo Technique

Man Technique



Smash
I have had a lot of questions on smash, and to be honest I'm not sure why.  I've not had a lot of problems over the years with the smash game, guess I'm just lucky.  Smash to me, is a corner route by 2, and a hitch or quick out by #1.  The safety here is obvious, he's man on 2 since 2 went vertical.  Now he's got some leverage issues, but not like you would if you were playing Robber where he's inside #2.  Remember the safety, in Blue coverage is OUTSIDE the #2 receiver.  The corner is the kicker here, he has to see 2 vertical, and when he hears the "out" call by the safety, he now knows it's smash and must cushion off #1 to a point where he has leverage on both throws.  This does 2 things, puts indecision in the QB's mind as to who the corner is playing, and gives the curl/flat player a chance to get his read and expand into the throwing window.  Again, it comes down to technique and how the routes are distributed and played.




Smash


Wheel by 2, Post by 1
This is no different than Scissors in my opinion, however I don't like the "Me" (man) call to this route combination.  If you run the me call, the safety has got to be schooled to keep inside leverage on the wheel, and I have found this to be difficult, especially if a team likes to run a lot of out routes by #2 (especially arrow routes).  Again, this comes down to "banjoing" the routes.  The corner sees the out by 2, reroutes 1 and continues to trail.  The corner is the swing deep of 2 player and must keep his eyes and leverage on this route.  Once 2 turns upfield, the corner MUST leave 1 and work for leverage on 2.  The safety, upon seeing the out by 2, is now flying to work to inside leverage on 1 thinking "fade, fade, fade" (worse case scenario), so when 1 runs his post, he's actually running right into the teeth of the defense, the safety will have excellent leverage on the post route at this point, and it now all turns into man coverage again. 
If you get caught in a "me" call, work your safeties in staying over the top of #2's route.  They cannot try and get in the throwing window here, that's what the curl/flat player's job is.  Remember all "me" is doing, is telling the corner, that the safety has the vertical and out of 2, which includes the wheel, so your safety must maintain his leverage to be able to turn and run with the wheel route once 2 turns upfield. 




Blue vs. Post/Wheel Combo



Blue Me vs. Post/Wheel Combo

I'm sure there are more ways to skin cat here, and probably more route combinations that need to be worked on.  Remember, rep your technique and your reads, DAILY.  This is so important, I cannot stress this enough.  If you are going to play pattern read coverage, you can't just work the reads 1 day a week, these must be done daily.  Hope this helps, now back to the Scream and Splatter!

Guys, some very good reading, check out these links below:

Stever Spurrier proposes a new way to pay athletes- Really?  How about when those athletes leave early for the draft, can they then "owe" the University they were at?  Just sayin'!

Brophy's been active with 2 great posts, the newest on coverages, and a great piece with a ton of Saban information, including Alabama's 2008 playbook!

School's about out for the summer for most, pound those weights men, Fall will be here before you know it!




Hit that weight room boys!


Duece