A PHILOSOPHY OF COACHING TO BUILD A TEAM

Lets look for a moment at several levels of coaching philosophy and a coaching theory, remembering that the coach is the engineer designing and assembling his team.
The nuts and bolts of football are fundamentals, assignments, execution, and the drills which help the players to learn these essentials. If you cant execute--forget it. While the subject of this book is how to improve on situational football we certainly dont minimize fundamentals. We work on fundamentals in mini-camps, training camp and in our meetings all year long. On the field, while working on the various situations which may occur, we are always working on the fundamentals. It is just that we are not working in 1 on 1 drills, we teach the fundamentals during the situational drills.
Next, you must teach your players how to compete. This is the personality and guts of your team. Every coach knows that motivation is an essential for learning, for having fun, and for winning. There is no sport in which team motivation is as important as it is in football.
Your theory of offense and defense, how you motivate, how much do you emphasize toughness, enthusiasm, team concept--all of these intangibles, are other important areas.

(For a complete analysis of the essentials of developing a team offense or defense see: Flores, Tom and OConnor, Bob, "Coaching Football" NTC/Contemporary Press.)

After the above three areas are taken care of, after you have taught the fundamentals, after you have taught the players how to execute what they have to do, after and you have helped to develop the motivation to perform well and to win-- you must take the next step and teach your players how to play the game.
American football is by far the most complicated of all games. It has been called "a colliding chess match." At any rate, football involves a high level of coaching and playing intelligence and it involves advancing or stopping the ball with hard contact with collisions.
The next level of a complete coaching philosophy, is the subject of this book. We must teach our players how to actually play the game of football. Just as the game of golf is theoretically quite simple -- just hit the ball into the hole. In actuality you never have the same shot twice. One time it is an uphill lie 190 yards from the pin on the fourth hole of Spyglass, the next time it is a 191 yard uphill lie on the seventh fairway at St. Andrews. These are two very different shots. Football is the same. A 3rd and 4 on your own 40 when ahead against the Dolphins is not the same as a 3rd and 4 on your own 40 when ahead against the Bears.
In golf your success is measured by how well you execute the repeated fundamental of the swing in various situations combined with how you manage the course. In football it is how well you execute the fundamentals and assignments plus the effectiveness of your strategy and tactics during the game.
Obviously you cant practice every possible situation which might occur in a game, but you can practice the major types of situations which can occur. There is no excuse for not practicing punting from your own end zone. There is no excuse for not practicing how to take a safety or how to take a knee when ahead late in a half. There is no excuse for not working on minimizing penalties, recovering fumbles or making the instant transition from defense to offense when a teammate has intercepted a pass.

So the next level of your football philosophy is to teach your players how to play situational football. This means not only to play the situations in which you find yourself, but also to creating the situations which are favorable to you, such as increasing your takeaway ratio. So level 4 of your coaching philosophy must be to:

Teach the players how to play the games. This is what this book is about.

This game is by far the most complicated game in the world. It has more people playing (minimum 11 offensive and defensive players, plus special teams, plus a large number of substitutes). There are more rules, more changing circumstances, more changing variables which must be handled by the coaches and the players. The better your players can think and react to these changing obstacles and opportunities the more effective your team will be. You certainly cant control every minute of the game.
The coach may call the play but the quarterback may have to audible out of it. He needs to be taught when and how to change the play. The coach may call a defense but the offensive set may require that the defensive signal caller change the defense. When and how to do this must be taught. The coach is responsible for the teams long range development (fundamentals, scheme and motivation). But the week to week practices must take other things into account.
Winning is more than just fundamentals and execution. This is what we want to develop here. A team can be a highly motivated, highly skilled team and yet get beat consistently if they dont know how to deal with the things that happen during the game.
This philosophy developed for one of the authors when, as an assistant coach at Army, Bobby Knight was the basketball coach. Watching Knights practices it was obvious that practicing situations was a critical part of each practice. Then, at North Carolina, he used to watch Dean Smith coach basketball. He coached the same waypracticing situations. These outstanding basketball coaches practiced the game much more specifically than football teams did. Of course it is easier to do this with ten men on the floor and with fewer possible game situations than football. Also the basketball team often practices on the same floor as where they play their home games. You have the scoreboard, the scorers table, etc.
At the other end of the country the other author had the opportunity, while a student and coach at U.C.L.A., to watch John Wooden coach. It was the same situation. Lots of work on fast break situations, which gave him 10 to 16 points a game. Yes he would stop practice every once in a while and have all of his players shoot free throws, but most of the practice was situational. He used to say that we will take care of ourselves and not worry about our opponents. We will be able to handle all the situations which are likely to arrive.
These outstanding basketball coaches worked on the fundamentals, but in a large part of their practices they created situations. " Red team, you are behind by 5 with 1:38 left in the game. It is your ball. You have one time out left and have one foul to give. White team, you have no fouls to give." These coaches didnt just practice plays all day or have an hour and a half scrimmage, they created the same kinds of situations that the players might encounter in their games. They prepared their players to handle varying situations. Then when in a similar situation in a game, the players reacted very well to it because it had been practiced. The coach didnt need to call time out to tell the players how to handle the situation, it had been practiced. But how often do football coaches call a time out and try to tell the players how to play a situation which had never been practiced?

--"Well run the sprint out, but if they are in man run the out and up, but if they rotate throw the post to the X receiver. Remember no motion or offside penalties. And if we dont get out of bounds and dont make the first down call a time out but dont call time if we make the first."

How many coaches could remember all that then execute it perfectly --let alone your sophomore quarterback. When your players are excited, tired, and the homecoming game is on the line doesnt it make much more sense to call a play which has been practiced for this situation? We think we must practice the situations which will probably be encountered. It is not realistic to take a time out and try to cram their heads with information and assignments which have not been practiced.
I always work at least once in the early season on taking a safety. Give them the situation. Fourth and 5 on the 6. We are ahead by 3 and there is a minute to go in the game. If we punt out they will undoubtedly try to block it so we need maximum protection. With maximum protection we will sacrifice coverage. Without coverage they will probably return the ball inside the 30, maybe the 20. They have a good chance to kick the tying field goal or to score a touchdown and win it. If we take a safety we are still ahead by 1 but we get to kick off from the 20. Our kickoffs have been netting 40 yards so they will probably get the ball on their own 40. Now they have a minute to go 60 yards to beat us or 35 yards to have a chance of tying us. And we know they will be in their 2 minute offense so there should be fewer surprises.
If you are coaching at the high school level, another thing to practice, at least once a season, on the day before the first game, is fair catching a short punt out of the end zone. We are behind by 1 or 2. It is late in the game or the half. We rush the punt hard being careful not to rough the punter but hurrying him. We fair catch inside the 30 or 35--depending on our field goal kickers range. Not all high school coaches realize that after a fair catch the receiving team has the chance to play a scrimmage down (first and 10) or a free kick down. The kickoff is a free kick down but if the ball splits the uprights it does not score. But after a fair catch a free kick can score. So after the fair catch we choose the free kick down. We have the kickoff team go on the field, making sure that we have only 11. We tee the ball up in the center of the field. No one but the kicker moves toward the goal line. (We dont need kick coverage --or an offside penalty). There is no time pressure and no defensive rush. It should be an easy 3. But what if you hadnt practiced it and are trying to explain what you are doing by sending out your kickoff team after the fair catch? If you ever think that this is a possibility to win a game you need to plan: (1) the pressure on the punter, (2) the fair catch and (3) the free kick.

There is 14 seconds left in the game, we are down by 6. We cant kick a field goal, we must get the ball over the goal line. We have two plays to win it. The coaches are all talking through their head sets about what to do, but the guys who have to win it on the field are not a part of the discussion or the conclusion. If you had a time out left and you use it you can get with the QB or the team and draw a play in the dirt. But wouldnt it have been better to have practiced it? If so then you know the play youre going to call. The players know the play youre going to call. So instead of calling a time out, you just call the play you have practiced.

In 1981 I took the head job at Wake Forest, the second smallest school playing division one football, a small private school with high academic standards in a big state school conference. We played Clemson, Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland, Florida State, Georgia Tech so we were going to be outmanned in many circumstances. We had to get our team drilled on how to win the games. We couldnt give up any opportunities which might arise and let our opponents win the crucial situations. We had to win the games that we had a chance to win. We could not let one game slip by then say--"well we will win next week, we are a much better team."
In our two minute situation suppose we complete a long pass and have the ball on their 12. We have no time outs. The clock is momentarily stopped to reset the chains. There are ten seconds left in the game and we must score a touchdown. I dont want to lose the game because we couldnt get the play in or we hastily called a play with little chance for success. We had designed a play exactly for that situation and we practiced it every week. We had a code word for it. It won some games for us because we were prepared for the situation.
Back to basketball practice. The better coaches use the clock for many of the situations being practiced. The clock shows 6 minutes. The white team is ahead by 18. Red team, you now have to run the full court press without fouling and you must score quickly when you get the ball. The white team comes down the floor and a forward takes a quick jumper from the foul line. Whether he makes it or misses it, the coach stops the action. "Jim, why would you take a shot like that when we are 18 points up and there are 25 seconds left on the shot clock? Explain to me what you were thinking." With this score, being up by 18, gaining seconds is more important than gaining points. Here we have a real teachable moment!
With the Jets we do a great amount of situational work with our teams. On Wednesday, our first practice day after a Sunday game, we take a short warm up, twelve minutes of individual work. The rest of the practice is situational. On Thursdays we will have 6 or 8 minutes of individual work and the rest of the practice is situational. Naturally when we are in camp we teach and practice our fundamentals, but during the season we have largely a "situation based" practice. We are practicing on how to win the next game.
Many pro teams dont practice much in pads. We are in pads every Wednesday and Thursday. We are working on fundamentals and execution, but within a situational context. It could be goal line, 4th and 1, 4th and 3. It could be coming out from our own goal. It could be two minute offense or defense. It could be ball stripping techniques against a specific ball carrier or quarterback we will face.
Dont make any mistake and assume that we are not teaching fundamentals during those situations. On a pass the "O" line coach may say "Joe get your hands in a little tighter." The "D" line coach may say "You didnt need to spin on that one, it would have been better to stay with your bull rush." But we are drilling the situations which will, or may, come up in the game.

HAVE A VISION OF WHAT YOU WANT YOUR TEAM TO LOOK LIKE.

As a head coach I had a vision of how I wanted my team to look. As a defensive coordinator I had a vision of how I wanted my defense to look. And as a linebacker coach I have a vision of how I want my linebackers to play. You cant prepare your team to execute and to play the situations which will arise if you dont know what you want.
Next week you are going to face a team that brings a lot of people on defense. As the offensive line coach what are you going to work on this week? Blitz pick up! If you cant pick up the blitzes your quarterback will be on the ground most of the afternoon.
What will you give up to get the time to work on the necessary blocking adjustments? Will you give up throwing long, when that is what you really want to do? Will you give up getting off on the ball? Or can you work on all the things you want for your team in the situations you present to your team in practice?

I always had a session early in practice, I called it "First things first."
I can use this approach either as a head coach or as a position coach. In college coaching we did this right at the beginning of our practice on Tuesday and Wednesday. The offensive linemen did bags, boards and chutes every day. The defensive backs worked on open field tackling and playing the deep ball, every day. The quarterbacks and wideouts worked on throwing deep balls, because I always wanted to be able to throw deep on Saturday. I dont want my game evaluation to show that we missed three guys on deep balls. The players were drilled repeatedly on the skills I wanted them to be able to execute in the game on the way I wanted my team to look.
Then we did individual work. I let my position coaches decide what they needed to work on. If they thought their people would profit more from sitting under a tree, then thats what they did. This was the period for the position coaches to teach what they thought was important for the season or for the upcoming game.

All of us had to keep our focus on the whole. What if we work on blitz pick up for several weeks then we find that our running game isnt working. The problem is likely that we forgot to work on getting off on the ball and our bags, boards and chutes drills. If we are missing open field tackles with our safeties, why? Maybe we had been working so much on motion adjustments that we didnt have time to work on open field tackling.
You have to have that picture of what you want your team to be like. Every day in spring practice you will work on bags, boards and chutes. Every day you will work on the essential offensive, defensive and kicking fundamentals that you must have to make your team "YOUR TEAM. "
Now as the season goes on, can we reduce the time spent on some of these drills and still keep our focus and sharpness. You probably dont need 12 minutes on bags, boards and chutes every day, but just enough to remind them of what they did all spring. You probably dont need 12 minutes on blitz pick up every day because you did it nearly every day in the spring. The players just have to practice perfectly a little of what they already know. But we didnt change our "first things first" approach to the beginning of each practice.
Those of us on the Jets staff all subscribe to the same philosophy. We are all on the same page. We all believe in teaching situational football while continuing to teach and review the fundamentals and to work on effective execution of our assignments. We have a collective mentality as a staff. It is our job, then, to teach it to our groups and to our team.

A Vision is Needed for Everything That Is Important to Accomplish!
In last years general session keynote speech at the American Football Coaches Association Convention, Mike Singletary, college and pro Hall of Famer, talked about life and what was important to him. Here are a few excerpts from that speech which tie in on our personal level and highlight the coaching philosophy which we are expounding on in this chapter.

--"I had the vision of what I wanted to do when I was growing up."

--"I wrote it down and put it on my wall. But people saw it and laughed, so I put it in my closet."

--"I am so thankful that at that time in my life I made the decision to make a commitment."

--"If you dont commit, it wont happen."

Whether its family or football, work or religion, you have got to be committed.

The EAFCA wants to thank Bob O'Connor for sending us the first chapter of "A football game is more than a jousting match". If you are a football coach, this is something you MUST have in you library.
E-mail: Bob O'Connor