weekend gameplanning

[fish]

just curious to see how many of you work 7 days a week and who works 6.

we work 7, but there are times it seems we could be done in 6. after a saturday game, we get it all done in one day on sunday. but after a friday game we work saturday and sunday.

also, what is the makeup of your staff? we are a very young staff and it makes sense to me that we need time to work stuff out in our mind because of experience.

[brophy]

unfortunately, as a staff only a few involve themselves in game planning. I am a linebacker coach...apparently, I'm also the defensive coordinator now.

Friday night, when I get done cussing - I'm up until 1 or 2 burning DVDs / tapes of the game

Saturday at 9, I meet with assistants about defense, game plan for opponent. Go home and cut up the scout tape for player review during the week.

Sunday at 9, I meet with offense about their game / personnel, discuss what may / may not work against opponent. Afternoon, I grade out the defense individually from the previous game. Evening, I meet with parents and watch game film with them.

Monday, after practice, it's reviewing what worked well and how to simplify how we're game planning.

Tuesday, evaluate practice and see who "gets it".

Wednesday, we finalize what will really work and marginalize what won't. Friday night's defensive call sheet is finalized.

Thursday, we review everything - checks, alignments, automatics, and run every call on the game sheet.

Friday, we cross our fingers and pray like hell.

HC is 32, OC is 37, I'm 31 and our Dline coach is 45. That's about as involved our staff gets in game planning.

Other coaches we have on staff; (4 sophs / 3 frosh)
2 Dline (one soph / one frosh)
0 Oline
1 linebacker (one soph )
2 Receiver / QB(one soph / one frosh)
1 Secondary (one soph )

[tog]

you don't have an o line coach?

[brophy]

OC is oline coach....our other OL coach quit / terminated before the season started.

We have an OLine "apprentice" that works on the Soph staff.

[tog]

that could lead to some problems

[brophy]

didn't notice....we have tons of problems....

3 guys out with suspensions
7 out with injuries

I would be interested in how others game plan, though. I know some old salts that can just whip up what they want to do in a whim.

[50hybrid]

Saturday 8:00 AM grade Fridays game film
10:00 AM player film session
11:30-12 lunch I am fat
12 D assistant and I break down opponent films by Field position, hash, down and distance, formation, play, and scenerio
Generally after 3 or 4 trade films done about 5:00
5:00 PM Personel and depth
6:00 Brainstorm game plan ideas, and packages
7:00 go home
Sunday
8:00 AM Analyze tendancies, check for any btf's blitz the formation, contemplate ideas from saturday
10:00 Church, lunch
1:00 PM discuss strengths and weaknesses, what do we need to force opponent to do, finalize scheme

3:00 PM assistant goes home; decide on our blitz point of attack, where does the majority need to come from, link blitzes to secondary, what coverages need to be with each blitz, what formations need to check blitzes, what formations require a front check
6:00 PM dinner
7:00 PM Finalize, iron out details, prepare position packets what they need to know for the week

Monday
7 AM meet with assistance teach scheme
Practice teach scheme to players, fundamentals, and base fronts (no blitzes)
Tuesday

Practice implement blitzes, and combo coverages, and BTF's
Wednesday, situational checks, work on entire package
Thursday- polish check understanding of blitzes and coverages

[shortyardage]

Immediately after the game we debrief the players and the staff. We ask questions like: Did they stay true to the scouting report. Did our game plan work. What game adjustments did we make that were successful and what game adjustments did we not make. We collect all of the forms and data (play call sheets for both offense and defense, penalty sheets, stats, etc)

We start making tape copies right away. I try to have a set up that will allow us to make at least three copies; one for the OC, one for the DC and one to trade the next day. Then we go home.

The next day I watch the game film at 6:00 AM and I grade the staff, the staff shows up and we watch it again at 7:00 AM and the staff grades their positions. The team shows up at 8:00 and we watch it together and the coaches provide their grades to the players. I have a one re-wind rule, otherwise we'd be there all day long. We only re-wind the tape once per play. Each coach is expected to coach his players/position on each play. After films we run for fifteen to twenty minutes just to get the guys to sweat and loosen up, we watch the players to see who is trying to hide an injury from us. After that we get into the weightroom for an in-season work out. When that's done we send the kids home.

Thed staff meets again and I give the coaches their grades based on how their players performed and how each position or unit performed. Then we self scout off of our own game film. After that, game tapes are distributed to each coach and by then the tape trader should have returned so we start breaking down tape of our next opponent. Lunch is brought in. If there's a game that night we go and scout it.

On Sunday, after church, the staff meets and we continue to break down film of our next opponent. We put everything into a computer program. We analyze our self scouting and incorporate it into our plan for out next game.

We break down tendencies and personnel and compile cut ups. We a make preliminary game plan and preliminary practice plans based upon the game plan. We write a scouting report. We talk personnel and substitutions for the next game. The we go home.

Future plans include starting a team website where the players can log on, see cut ups of the plays that they will be practicing against the next day and read the coaching points from their positional coaches.

We go with long yardage/blitz packages/blitz pick ups/2 minute offense on Monday. Short yardages/goal line packages on Tuesday. Regular down and distances/4 minute offense on Wednesday. Pre-game script on Thursday and game day on Friday. All kicking game practice corresponds to the appropriate down and distance day of the week. The scouting report corresponds to the day of the week.

If we have a Friday game,we hit the most on Tuesday and tape on Wednesday.

[Split50]

shortyardage, you grade the staff? Does that mean if his kids don't do well he gets punished. wow

[tog]

I can see grading the staff to some degree split. Not execution by the kids so much as sometimes they are just plain outmanned. But wrinkles that the other team is doing, did they exploit them? Did the staff get the kids into position to make plays?
Most of the time this is moot as well though. As most staffs know what adjustments the other team will make and what their countermoves are to that. Sometimes, weird looks on defense that you don't expect make you dig into your bag of tricks though.

[tog]

yes kw

the adjustments i can see grading a staff on

the kid's execution can be something you can grade the staff on as well, but you have to have the grain of salt in there about realizing personnell mismatches and if your kids COULD execute

[Split50]

Sorry, can't agree about grading the staff. I am not talking about evaluating how well a position coach made adjustments. That is usually as much the coordinators responsibility as the position coach. At least it is with me. We talk during the game about what the offense is doing and what we can do to counter it. If it doesn't work, that is my fault as well. I know what our defensive position coaches teach during the week. I know what we are going to do on Friday night. And I know what adjustments we are going to make. Why would I blame the position coach when it doesn't work? Unless he were just to refuse to do something I asked. But that is not a grading situation. That is a firing situation.
What are you going to do if the coach doesn't grade out very well? Replace him? With whom?
If players don't grade out, we just try to coach 'em up the next week. If I have a defensive coach that is struggliing, I am going to try to coach him up the next week.
Grading to me means, 80%, 60%, 90%, etc. That is bull!!
Just my take, guys.

[tog]

i agree with you split

i was saying how I could see someone doing that in a very limited way

[brophy]

We alternate who brings the sunflower seeds to practice each week.

[Split50]

Now, that is the important stuff, Brophy. Must get priorities right. haha

[pegleg]

Saturday - 8:00 AM - Breakfast, try to recover from hangover
8:45 - Grade film from Friday/Meet Offense Staff & Defense Staff
11:00 - Kids come in, Offense film; Defense lift
12:00 - Switch
1:00 - Leave
1:15 - Offensive staff meeting at local watering whole, watch NCAA and draw on napkins, try to start second hangover

Sunday - 2:00 - around 5 (when we're done) Gameplan for next weeek

Holla

[brophy]

sorry to say----pegleg must have the same staff we have .......
Our offensive playbook in the Spring consisted of a handful of bar napkins in a three ring binder.

[pegleg]

You say that like its a bad thing brophy! heeh

Holla

[tog]

i have always been evaluated at the end of the season.

[Coach Huey]

most staffs i've been on have had some type of evaluation process after the season. this usually consisted of a self-evaluation and an evaluation from the head coach. the head coach's evaluation tried to praise us for some of the things we did well while pointing out things we need to continue working on. the evaluation by the head coach was meant to be a learning tool NOT a thing to degrade us or "put us in our place."

coordinators evaluated the offense/defense as to things that are good, bad, need work, etc. this evaluation of our system leads us to a direction for the spring:
1. what colleges/clinics to attend? (who does what we do? who can give us better insight into what we are doing and/or what we want to do?, etc.)
2. what are we looking for? (new schemes? new drills? new approaches to what we are already doing?, etc.)
3. what changes - if any - will we want to make for next season? (get rid of a scheme? add a package?, etc.)
4. what do we need to emphasize and/or de-emphasize? (spend more time on certain schemes? rely less on a specific scheme? reduce certain packages? increase certain packages?, etc.)

[Split50]

I understand about being evaluated. I am evaluated every year by the head man as well. But he doesn't grade me each week. That is an entirely different situation. I evaluate the defensive coaches, also. I will tell them what I think their strengths are and what they might need to work harder on. That is a part of the process. I do that on a continuous basis, not just at the end of the season.

[Split50]

We have 8 coaches on the high school staff. We coach one side of the ball; 4 on defense and 4 on offense. The HC is one of the offensive coaches. We coach 9th, JV, and varsity.

We are a pretty young staff, except for me. I am almost older than the other 3 defensive coaches combined. The HC is in his late 40's and the other offensive coaches are young. Except for he and I, the average age of the other 6 is probably about 27.

We start work on Sat. morning at 8:00 by grading the previous night's film. While grading the film we also do our tackles, turnovers chart. I do that. That usually takes about two hours.
The defensive staff then charts the next opponent's films. We always have two films and maybe more. We will chart as least two games. When we have finsihed that, we are through. It is usually about 1:00. The offensive staff is looking at the team's and getting their defensive fronts, coverages, etc.
We do not have a computer program at the school, but I have one on my home computer. I take the info home, and enter it in my computer. This will take from 3-4 hours. I can then pull up nearly any report I want.
I do this over a period of time. So I am both at home doing things, plus working on the next game.
Once I get the reports I need, I start scheming the defense to fit their offensive tendencies.
On Sunday afternoon the defensive staff meets at 5:00 pm to go over what we will do the next week. I give them the tendencies, show them what adjustments we will make and brainstorm with them anything else we might need to do. At this time we will determine what particular techniques we will stress, the coverages, and the fronts.
At 6:00 pm the offensive coahes arrive and we have a staff meeting with the coach about the next week. We determine our player awards for the previous game. This usually ends about 6:30. The defensive coahes are through and we go home. The offense meets until about 8 and then they go home.

[tog]

that sounds about how we did it where i was before split

maybe stayed a little longer on saturdays, but usually that was just me grading the ol on my own

[toprowguy]

Split,

We switched this year to just coaching one side of the ball with evryone (9 - 12 grades). We have always practiced everyone together but before we would coach both sides of the ball, usually having a major position like OL and a secondary position like DL. So we would coach the Varsity at our major position then the Soph and Frosh at our secondary position. But we switched this year to the one side approach. Our staff has 4 on O and 4 on D with five volunteers mixed in.

My question to you is how do you work it on your staff as far as coaches running the scout team and getting enough players to run scout team. Also what do you do with the players that only play one side of the ball.

[phantom]

We do things differently from most largely because of the makeup of our staff. We only have 6 paid coaching positions so the HC/OC, DC (me), and a new guy who we hired to get a coach in the building are the only guys getting a full supplement. The others either split a supplement or are volunteers. We coach both sides of the ball and we're an older staff. The boss is 53 and I'm 52. There are three young assistants in their 20s. The rest are in their 40s and most work outside the school.
Because of that the only meeting we have on Saturday is at 10 AM to show the video to the team. If we have a Saturday game to scout we'll go but otherwise most of the coaches are free until Sunday. The HC/OC and I will split the videos and work at home putting together a game plan at whatever schedule we like before our Sunday meeting. The new fulltimer will have put the games into the computer and will work on breaking it down by Tuesday.
We meet Sunday night at 5. When we walk in we have our game plans close to finished. We'll watch the video of the opponent then present the tentative game plans, discuss, and make any alterations. There are rarely many major changes and, since I do the defensive plan on my personal laptop with Playmaker, and do the presentation using the RGB projector, any changes are made immediately. We're usually done by 9.

[aznando]

Here is what we did:

Normaly after a game on Friday, we try to figure out what didn't work and why. What worked, and what we need to improve on. We have a full staff debriefing after all the kids leave in the office. Our TV Production dept. taped the games for us so after our meeting me and another Offensive Coach, usually the one who was single with no kids would hang out in the TV Production classroom until the tapes were done being dubed. After that I would splice together our Endzone and Wide shots. I would drive by the HC's house and drop his tapes in the Mailbox. I would then go home and watch what we did and take notes on some talking points for Saturday. At about 3AM i fall asleep.
Saturday Morning we normaly only held the kids for an hour. We just want to get the soreness out and did some running sometimes we would go to the pool and go swimming. On Saturday after practice we would meet and watch film, discuss what we did well and what we didn't do well. We then would sit around and watch College Football until the guy came with the Trade Tapes. We would dub the Trade Tapes and go home. As the WR coach I would then go home and grade our WR. Grade them on their run blocking, blocking down field on passes, route running and their choices, ie. making the right choice on their routes. Since we ran a R&S we had alot of choice routes based on the coverage.

On Sunday the Offensive staff would get together for the 2nd NFL game of the day with pizza and beer and then we would start game planning for the next team. I was in charge of doing the Self Scout so I had printouts of what we called that game in each situation and then I had a report for what we had done the whole season up to that point.. This helped the OC see his tendencies. We would figure out what the things we wanted to do and what some things we want to exploit were.

On Monday we would show the kids the game film usually during thier lunch period. Before Practice we would get together with our groups and I would tell each of our WR what they did well and what they need to improve on. Monday after practice we would continue to scheme and watch more film.

Tuesday we show the kids the other teams film. They really dont get alot of film study. Do you coaches think its all that necessary at this level? We start to implement our Red Zone and Black Zone packages.

Wednesday we have the Game Plan Finalized for the most part. We do Goal-Line package and 2-Minute. Wendsday was usually are longest practice.

Thursday we normaly had our First 10 ready and would go over that.

Friday- Pray

Aznando

Aznando

[Split50]

toprowguy, sorry I haven't responded bdfore now.
All of our players practice on both sides of the ball. We have no one who is just an "offensive" or "defensive player". Certainly, we have players who may never play the other side, but they all practice. We try to protect our QB and running back, but they still practice at a position. This year our best running back is also a starting safety. Out qb plays a lot of defense as well.
Where the scout team is concerned, we have one coach that is responsible for that on defense. He is the dline coach. He will quarterback the scout team if necessary. He was a high school quarterback and is only 23. When possible, one of our qbs will run the team, though. He usually has to qb the JV. It just saves time. We draw up play cards for the scout team to look at. That helps.
Depending on personel available, if necessary, we will do half line. We do not attempt to fool the defense in practice. If we are facing a team that only does certain things, that is what we are going to practice against. Years ago, a coaching mentor of mine told me to never "witch hunt". Defend what they do, not what they could do or might do. If you sound, you will be able to handle that to. I am very big on formation tendencies, so that is what we practice against.
We do a lot of inside/outside hull work in order to work on specifics.
You just have to take advantage of what you have and adjust to what you don't have. It has work well for us for several years, now. We have had as few as 3 on each side and as many as 6, depending on the school we at.
Hope this helps.

[toprowguy]

That's great thanks. Usually our DC runs our scout team when the Varsity is on offense and the OC runs the scout team when the varsity is on D. This gives the younger coaches a chance to call plays when in team period with the young guys.

This is the first year we have run it and so far I think it is working well to develop the entire program.

Frosh = 4 - 2 (everyone plays 60 guys)

Soph = 3-2 (everyone plays 30 guys)

JV = 5-1 (everyone plays Jr and Soph 60 guys)

Varisty = 2-4 (should win the rest)

[Split50]

toprowguy, we practice our JV and varsity at the same time. When the JV is on defense the varsity is on offense. Half way through the practice we switch. so
our offensive and defensive coaches never see each other during the practice. The offense has their practice area and we have ours.

[bucky]

We have Friday games, Saturday morning JV (non starting junoirs and seniors of Friday nights) and Sunday night meetings. (6:00-9:30) We have 5 offensive coaches grading "O" and 5 grading "D". Then we get together on opponent and then split again.
Age and years coaching at our school:
Me (OC) 52/29
DC 50/27
OL 60/29
DL 63/18
DB 31/8
HB 36/14
DE 59/12
TE/SE 30/ 2