Building A Defensive Call Sheet To Dominate

After being an offensive coordinator for 7 years and enjoying a lot of success, I switched over the the dark side and became a defensive coordinator. I was coaching at a program where we coached both side of the ball, so I was well-versed in the potential of our defensive players. We made the transition from a 3-4 defense to the Odd Stack. The biggest area we had to transition was on our preparation. 

As an offensive coordinator I had a very detailed call sheet. I decided to adapt this to defense. This article will give you a couple of ideas that will help you build your call sheet to dominate your opponents. Our call sheet helped us post 6 shutouts while giving up just 6.8 points per game. We made the deepest playoff run in school history. 

Our number one goal on defense was to get the ball back. That was the premise for everything we did. We could get the ball back one of four ways.

1. They score. This was the worst way to get the ball back.
2. We get a turnover on downs. This was good, but often meant they had driven into our territory and went for it on fourth down.
3. We could force a punt. This was good, as it usually meant we stopped them on their side of the 50.
4. We got a turnover. This was best as it meant we created momentum, and often would have great field position.

When we built our call we focused on a couple of areas first. We wanted to make sure we knew who their playmakers were, and when they went to them. One week we faced a team that had a great receiver they would go to every time it was 3rd and 4 or more. We knew we had to take him away. We scripted a couple of calls that were designed to take him away and disrupt timing. Below is an example of this column:

Depending how many playmakers our opponent has, we may use 2, 3, or 4 of these columns. Typically we are going to have 2 of these columns, because most teams have 2 playmakers. Some teams may have 3 or 4, but most teams have 1 or 2. Usually each of these guys are go to guys in specific situations. 

In addition to stopping playmakers, we needed to stop what our opponent did. It is important you enter the data into your video program. It only takes a few minutes to do a game, but having the data will give you what you need to build a championship call sheet. We wanted their run/pass percentages by personnel, formation, and down and distance. Once we know what they did, we can build a call sheet designed to stop them. 

The next column I built was our opponents personnel groups and run pass percentages, followed by the calls they made most often, and what we liked to call against this group. I used these typically on first and 2nd down situations. I had a coach telling me personnel, down and distance, and run/pass percentages. I would then make my call based on the call sheet. We were using concrete data to make calls. Below is an example of what this section of my call sheet looked like:

Most teams are very tendency oriented, and I wanted to know what their tendencies were from each formation and personnel grouping. I also wanted to be reminded of screen downs. We had calls built in to take away screens against teams that were screen heavy. I also wanted to know if there were certain personnel or formation keys that tipped us to what our opponent would do. The stars * are the calls they make most using our terminology. The numbers are the calls I like against these personnel groups. This way I am not trying to guess what to call. I am not smart enough to do that. 

The backside of my call sheet is designed with down and distance situations. We list each situation by hash, put our opponents run/pass percentages, and then list our favorite calls. Typically we will have 2 or 3 calls we list. Breaking this data down by hash helps us to be very targeted. Some teams will be 60% run on 3rd and short, but if they are on one hash that might be 80% run, and in the middle might be 40% run. This is important because it helps us make the best call in each situation. 

Here is an example of 2nd and short. You can see that our opponent tends to run more in the middle and right hash, but they are more balanced on the left hash. I can now make better calls based on the hash. 

Each section of our call sheet gave specific info that helped us to be able to take away what our opponent wanted to do and who they wanted to do it with. Using this data will help you make better play calls that are more disruptive to the offense. 

We called our call sheet an in-game info sheet because it contained a lot of necessary data that allowed me to call our defense quickly and efficiently. I had a communication coach relaying information to me based on this sheet. We felt like this helped us to put our kids in a position to be successful. A good defensive call can help your players to be able better do their job. We ended up with 6 shutouts and beat some teams we shouldn't have beaten. We were able to play very well on defense. Adding these columns might benefit you as you build your call sheet this season. 

There is much more to our call sheet, as we also had calls by field zone and down and distance. I also had a section called the Big 12, which consisted of the 12 things they do that makes up 90% of their offense. I talk more about that here. As far as generating the data, Hudl gives you some great reports. But if you want to take your data to another level, check out this post I wrote: http://coachvint.blogspot.com/2023/07/defense-game-planning-keys-to.html

Many coaches tell me they want to build a call sheet, but they don't know where to start. Many have asked about my call sheet, and I decided to put together a packet of every single document we have used to prepare on defense. This has everything we used, including our 2 sided color call sheet. You will be more prepared on defense and will be able to dominate your opponent! You can click here to learn more: Defensive Game Planning Resource You can order it now and download it instantly! For a limited time, it is one sale using the link above! It is completely editable and customizable. This resource is available for instant download! 

If you are looking to improve your preparation, take a minute to check out this resource packet.

Additional Resources for Coaches:

Last year I got hooked up with CoachTube, and put together three courses for offensive football coaches. I put together two courses on RPO's, and a course on Building An Elite System of Communication. All of these courses will help you to score more points!  https://coachtube.com/users/coachvint

Installing Post-Snap RPO's

Installing Pre-Snap RPO's To Get Your Skill Guys More Touches

Building An Elite System of Gameday Communication

All three of these courses are detailed, with everything you need to be more explosive and to score more points. 

The course on communication gives you a detailed approach to your gameday communication. I give you a system and a process to improve the quality of conversations, leading to improved play calling on game day. This course has received outstanding reviews from coaches at all level of football. A coach with multiple state titles told me this course helped them to be much more efficient and explosive this season. 

My two RPO courses take you through a systematic process of installing RPO's into your offensive system. RPO's put the defense in conflict, forcing them to defend all 53 yards of width and all 6 skill players every single play. I not only give you a system, but I teach you the methods to develop your own RPO concepts. 

https://coachtube.com/users/coachvint

A few years back I published a couple of iBooks that can help your program with X's and O's. The first is on Installing RPO's into any offense. Here is a link to the iBooks version: http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1078061959. The ibooks version includes explanations, diagrams, and video clips embedded!

If you don't have an iPhone, iPad, or Mac, you can order the Amazon version for the Kindle. It has everything except the embedded video. You can order it here: http://www.amazon.com/Installing-Explosive-Concepts-Into-Offense-ebook/dp/B01B12YSCG/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

I also wrote a book on Tempo. It will greatly help you build a multiple tempo system with simple communication that will allow your kids to play with confidence. It also had over an hour of video clips! You can order the ibooks version here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1075902270.

Order the Amazon Kindle version here:

http://www.amazon.com/Using-Multiple-Tempos-Create-Explosive-ebook/dp/B01ATOL46A/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

 

The Three Biggest Mistakes Coaches Make When Scouting an Opponent

Every week we are going to prepare to play an opponent, we are going to try to learn as much about our opponent to be as prepared as possible. Sun Tzu said it best in "The Art of War." If you don't know your enemy you will suffer defeat. 

Nearly every coach in America is going to prepare for their opponents each week. There are three big mistakes that coaches make in scouting an opponent. These three things will always get you beat. 

1. They don't enter any data into their video program. 

2. They have different coaches entering data each week.

3. They don't look at the data. 

They Don't Enter Any Data

This is something I see more frequently than you can imagine. I have coaches reach out to me to help solve problems in their program, and when I log into their Hudl account, they haven't entered any data. One school gave up 32 points a game. They had pretty good players and matched up well with five teams in their district. They ended up barely making the playoffs and losing in the first round. They had not entered any data on their opponents. 

It doesn't matter what side of the ball you coach, you need to have the most basic data entered so you can get a picture of your opponent. You can divide up the responsibilities and have 3 coaches enter the data for a game in 15 minutes. You can knock out three games in an hour. Three games will give you a good picture of your opponent. 

Once you enter the data, you can click a few buttons and generate information that will help you better prepare for your game. If you are a defensive coach, you can get an opponent's run pass percentages based on formation and down and distance. You can get their field zone tendencies. 

If I am an OC, I can get their blitz and coverage percentages. I can get their field zone tendencies. I will know when to run a man beater or zone beater. Or, when they are bringing pressure so I can throw a screen. 

I am a better play caller if I know what my opponent is going to do. How much better of a play caller are you if you know the defense brings a 5 man field pressure and plays man free behind it on 3rd and 3 or more? How much better can you call a defense if you know the offense is 70% run in 12 personnel, and if the back is to the boundary they run to the boundary? 

There is no excuse for not entering data on your opponents. Take 15 minutes with your coaches and enter the data for at least one game. 

Here is an example of a call sheet when I was a DC. By investing 35 minutes entering data, I had tendencies on my call sheet, and was able to then list my favorite calls to stop what they did. This call sheet is part of my Defensive Game Planning Packet . 

As you can see, I have the offensive tendencies listed for each down and distance situation from each hash. Because I know what they do, I can script my best calls to stop what they do. This is just one benefit of entering the data. 

The Have Different Coaches Entering Data Each Week

This is something I screwed up at one point. If Coach Williams is going to enter the formation, then Coach Williams enters the formation for every single film. If Coach Williams calls Trips Right "Toledo" for one game, and then Coach Jones calls Trips Right "Kentucky" for the next scout film, your data is going to be jacked up. Have the same coach enter the same column data for each opponent. 

You can have 1 coach enter Down and Distance, Hash, Yd Line, Play Type, Gain Loss, and Result. You can have another coach enter Formation and motion. Another coach enters play type and ball carrier. If you are scouting a team's defense, you do it much the same way. Except now you have one coach enter the front, stunt, and blitz, and another coach enters the coverage and tackler. 

If you divide up the duties, it goes quicker. You should have a universal language, so each coach uses the same terminology, but by having the same coaches entering the same columns each week, you are going to have consistent data. 

They Don't Look At The Data

This is one that I don't see a lot, but when I do it is frustrating. If you are going to have your coaches invest the time to enter the data, you need to look at the data. Once the data is entered, it can give you important information. I am going to take this information to create our practice schedule and scripts. Because we have the data, we are going to focus on what our opponent is most likely going to do. We are not going to waste time one things they rarely do. 

Have you ever gone through a practice week and spent time on something you never ended up calling? Or you spent 30% of your practice time on something your opponent did 5% of the time? That comes from not looking at the data. 

We are spoiled. Every video program provides some easy to read reports that helps us to have a picture of what our opponent will do. We need to take advantage of this information. Knowledge is power. 

The other aspect of using the data is scripting our practices. If we were playing a wing-t team that ran the ball 95% of the time, we spent more of our practice in inside run, and less time in pass hull. If we faced a defense that liked to bring 5 and 6 man pressures and play man coverage, we were able to build our practice plan to spend more time in blitz pick up. 

If you want to really to be organized and prepared, check out my game planning resource. I mentioned my defensive resource above. I also have an Offensive Resource. Below is an example of a few of the documents in the offensive resource. 

Both of these resources have everything you need that is already built and fully editable and customizable. They have call sheets, practice plans for the entire week, scouting report templates, depth chart templates, personnel templates, wrist band templates, and more. All the work is done, all you have to do is enter your information and dominate your opponents. They are less than $13 right now. And you can order BOTH in this bundle for additional savings! Offensive and Defensive Game and Practice Planning Bundle

These three mistakes take zero talent to overcome. Make sure you enter the data of the opponent you are going to play. Make sure you are consistent with who enters that data. Make sure you take the time to use the data. 

I hope this has helped give you some useful information. I recommend you check out my YouTube channel as well. I have several videos posted on game planning and scouting. https://www.youtube.com/@JamesVint/videos

Three Keys to Eliminating Chaos on the Headsets

One of the biggest challenges for play callers is making a play call when you have chaos on the headsets. I am sure no one reading this has ever had this problem. 

Yes, I was being sarcastic. Everyone who has coached a down of football has had chaos on the headset. Football is an emotional game with a large group of people invested in the success of the team. 

How many times did the chaos on the headsets make it tougher to call a game? How much better would you be if you could eliminate chaos and have your coaches focused on their individual job during the game? It's hard to call the touchdown play when you have chaos on the headsets. 

I speak at several coaching clinics each year, and this is the most popular clinic topic I talk about. Every single coach who attends this session tells me this is the topic they took the most out of. 

I am going to give you three keys from my clinic talk to help you eliminate some of the chaos on the headset. 

1. Have Clearly Defined Roles
2. Have a Communication Plan
3. Have a Game Plan and Call Sheet

Have A Communication Plan

When I first became a coordinator, we had chaos on the headset. It was mayhem. If the play went well we all screamed and cheered. If a play went bad we all yelling about who screwed up. We had to get a play call in and we were still talking about the last play. This went on for an entire season. I complained to my head coach. He said, maybe you should tell guys what you want. What an innovative thought.

Too often, we assume everyone is going to know what you want to them to do. We think that everyone magically end up on the same page. No one will be on the same page if you haven't given them a plan. You have to be intentional in everything you do if you want to be elite. 

We evaluated the strengths of our staff. We then discussed this as a staff to make sure everyone was in the best place to ensure team success. This might mean you put a guy upstairs that has been on the field. It might mean you move a guy from the box to the field. 

Our plan was broken into three parts. 

1. Who is in the box and who is on the field?
2. What is each coach watching?
3. What is each coach saying?

I was our OC and QB coach. I had been on the field calling plays, but I moved to the box. Our OL coach stayed on the field. Our WR coach moved to the field from the box. Our RB coach was going to be on the field. We had a JV coach who would be with me in the box charting plays. 

We had specific things each coach was watching for. We had what we called our "batting order" for who would speak and what they would say after each play. This coach says this, then this coach says this, then this coach says this. We worked under the rule that less is more. 

We had a specific language we used. If one coach says we have an under front when we have a 1-5 technique to the tight end, but another coach calls that a field eagle, then we can't have elite communication. I put a simple terminology sheet together that would help me as a play caller understand what each coach is saying. 

We had a procedure for how we communicate between series. Our players and coaches knew where to go and what our process would look like. This helped us to be better at making adjustments and greatly improved our coach to player communication. You have to have a plan in place. 

We practiced our communication in the office before we ever put the headsets on for a game. We would pull up a quarter of a game and go through two or three series, practicing our communication. If the first time you ever put the headsets on is when your first game starts, you are setting yourselves up for failure. 

Have Cleary Defined Roles

If no one knows what they are supposed to do, how can they do what you need them to do, when you need them to do it? Every coordinator should define the roles of each of their coaches. You should define these roles on paper. Each coach should then be given these roles, in writing. You then should discuss what each coach's role is during the game.

Each coach had a role that defined exactly what they were supposed to be looking at during the game. Each coach had a specific thing they were supposed to say between plays and during plays. This eliminated any confusion. Our OL coach was watching the box. Our receiver coach was watching near side secondary. Our RB coach was watching the linebackers. The JV coach next to me was watching far side secondary and charting plays. As the OC I was watching the big picture. 

Because each coach knew their role, we eliminated much of the confusion. 

Have A Game Plan and Call Sheet

This was a big piece of reducing chaos and being more efficient with our communication. We built a game plan with each coach being involved in putting together part of the plan. Each coach was filling in certain areas of our call sheet. On gameday, each coach had a copy of the call sheet. We discussed the call sheet on Sunday and made sure every single coach understood the game plan.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, we would have a live period that was mostly unscripted. We would put the headsets on and practice our communication. We would work through different situations, just like it was a game. This helped us find where we needed to make adjustments to our call sheet. We would almost never add anything to the call sheet, but we would take some things away.

This shows one area of our call sheet. We had the defensive blitz percentages and the percentages of man coverage they play in each situation. We then had a small menu of plays we liked. Every coach was on the same page and coach anticipate what the next call would be. If you don't have a call sheet and you don't want to create one from scratch, check out my Offensive Organizational Resource. 

Adjust this to Your Staff

Your plan has to fit your staff. When I was in the Bronx, we did not have a lot of coaches. We had to adjust the plan to fit the size of our staff. When I was in Texas, we had many more coaches, so we could break things up further. You have to determine what fits your staff and put a plan in place. 

If you have a chance to see this talk at a Glazier Clinic, come up and introduce yourself. If you haven't, I have put together an on-demand session on CoachTube on Building an Elite System of Gameday Communication. The price is also dropped for a limited time. You will have lifetime access to this session, and it includes some in-game downloadable! 

Coaches tell me this session on CoachTube helped them to greatly reduce chaos on the headsets and score more points! 

If you want to incorporate simple RPO concepts to get your skill guys more touches, I have two additional video courses on CoachTube. Installing Pre-Snap RPOs to Get Your Skill Guys More Touches While Protecting Your Runs and Designing and Installing Post Snap RPOs to Create Explosive Plays.  This will help you score more points while getting your dudes touches! If you want to save a few $$, here is a link to get all three videos at a huge discount! Coach Vint Bundle Deal

Earlier I mentioned our Call Sheet and gave you a link to our Offensive Game Planning Resource. This includes editable and customizable templates for you to use with your team to be more organized and score more points! It includes everything from a scouting report template, to practice plans, to a two-sided color call sheet, and more! Each of the nine documents are fully editable and customizable! Order today and start preparing for your first game right now!

Here are a couple of screen shots to show you what our call sheet looks like: 

This shows you a small portion of it. It is a fully editable, customizable two sided call sheet. It gives you the ability to better organize and be prepared on game day. It helped us to be better play callers on game day. There are eight other fully customizable documents! Some of the top high school programs in the country use this, as do several college programs!

When I was a defensive coordinator we adapted this to our defensive preparation! 

Here is a link to the defensive game planning documents. It includes 12 fully editable and customizable documents. https://sellfy.com/p/AY1u/ These are what we used to post 6 shutouts when I was a defensive coordinator. Defensive coordinators at all levels of football are using this. 

And finally, I put together a Special Teams Resource. This has everything you need, included drill tape, practice tape, and game footage. It includes teaching presentations, templates, and scouting forms just for special teams! This helped us to build dominating special teams! 

Additional Game Planning Considerations

When you prepare for an opponent there are some areas that you need to consider to be more prepared. You are always going to look at personnel and tendencies on both sides of the ball. You are going to look at what they do and who they do it with to determine your game plan. There are a couple of additional considerations I would recommend you look at. 

Snap Count

How do they snap the ball? Do they give a verbal command or do they use a clap? Do they go on the center? Is there a tip when the ball is going to be snapped? Once you determine their snap count, you want to have your scout teams simulate this snap count in all of your group and team periods. While your defense is going to watch the ball, you want them to hear in practice what they will hear during the game. 

If you can have scouts be a at a game in person, this is something to have them listen for. Have them get where they can hear the snap count during pregame. 

Penalties

Do they have pre-snap penalties? When our offense prepares we want to see if they jump offsides. If so, we want to figure out what we can do to get some free plays and free yards. Does their offense get pre-snap penalties? Is there a tendency with their pre-snap penalties? Is there anything we can do to help get them to start behind the chains?

I also want to look at whether they are a team that has a tendency to be chippy. Do they get 15 yard penalties? Have they had unsportsmanlike conduct penalties? I might talk to another coach who played our opponent to get some insight into this. This allows us to prepare our players through the week to not respond. The response always gets a penalty. We want to make sure we don't get stupid penalties that will cost us valuable yards. There are some teams that like to bait opponents into penalties. 

We had one team I hated to play because they weren't very good and they were even less disciplined. They would hit guys after the play and didn't seem to care if they got a penalty. Prepare your guys when you play teams like this to make sure they focus on playing the play and not the extra stuff after the whistle. 

Tips and Giveaways

Are there different tips that opponents give you that tell you what they are going to do? We played a team once whose QB would have his feet staggered if it was going to be a pass and his feet were parallel if it was going to be a pass. Our OLB's could see his feet. Our boundary backer's job was to say Eagle if he saw staggered feet and Dog if he saw the feet parallel. 

Another team we played had a receiver who would pull on his gloves if a play was going to be a pass. He did it every single pass. If he didn't pull on his gloves, it was a run. Another team had their tackles in 2 point stance on pass and 3 point stance on run. 

One year we played a team who loved to run a gap exchange blitz with the nose and an inside backer. It was going to be very difficult to account for. After watching a lot of film we realized the nose guard tipped the stunt. He would put his foot back to the side the backer was going to be stunting. We showed this to our guys and came up with a code word our center would communicate with the guards. We had our scout team run this stunt in inside run and team periods, as well as during our indy time to practice communicating and executing our adjustment. We were able to account for the nose and backer early in the game and hit some big plays. They didn't run this stunt after the first quarter. 

Not everyone is going to tip what they do, but finding one or two things that you can use to help your players is valuable. One key to this is to only give a tip if you are sure. If you are not sure, don't give the tip. 

Kick Operation Time/Protection Weakness/Block Point

We always wanted to time how long it took for a team to execute their punts, extra points, and field goals. We also charted their kick point on punts. Where does the ball come off the foot in relationship to the snap point? This helped us to prepare our guys to block kicks. Knowing where the block point will be is important. 

Along with this is finding the protection weakness Everyone has a weakness in protection. They have someone who doesn't execute at a high level. From there, we can attack that weakness and work to the block point. By timing their kick operation ,we can determine if we can beat the protection weakness and get to the block point in time to have a chance to disrupt or block the kick. If we can't get there because they have a fast operation, we will most likely set up a return. If we know we can get to the block point, we will go after at least one punt. 

If you have in-person scouts, you want them to get to the game 90 minutes early if possible so they can watch all of pre-game. You want them to see the specialists and look for potential weaknesses. Watch who can't catch kicks. Then see if guys that can't catch kicks are on the field during kicks. You can then kick to them and give yourself a chance to get the ball back. 

Things You Need to Make the Officials Aware Of

This often goes hand in hand with penalties. We played a team whose defensive backs played press man and would hold receivers down the field. We saw it on film and asked the officials to watch for it during the game. Another team had an issue with high-low blocks. We made sure to make the officials aware of this. Once you let the official know, play football. Don't let the fact that it may not get called every time throw you off your game. 

Additional Points

• Catch all kicks. This is so important. When you let a punt hit the ground you are going to give up field position. Every 10 yards you give up is another first down you need to have to score. 
• Prepare for Pooch Kicks. Prepare your kick return team for returning pooch kicks. Coach your guys on when to fair catch the kick. If a team like to pooch kick, put a dynamic returner where they kick the ball. Don't waste him lined up deep if they don't kick deep. 
• Look for times you can kick an onside kick. Do they have a large area of green grass? Kick the ball to that grass. If their front row guys leave early, practice a surprise onside and call it. 

These are a few important areas you can look at to help prepare as thoroughly as possible. You want to give yourself the best chance to win the game. If you want to be more prepared each week, I highly recommend you check out my game and practice planning resource. I spent much of my career as a coordinator. I was an offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator, and coached at both the high school and college levels. I have made available all of our game and practice planning resources that helped us win more games. These have everything you need to be more prepared. They are editable and customizable, and are available as an instant download.  https://sellfy.com/p/AndN/ 

It includes everything from a scouting report template, to weekly practice plans and scripts, to a two-sided color call sheet, and more! Each of the nine documents are fully editable and customizable! Order today and start preparing for your first game right now! This helped us be able to be prepared to attack the defense and put more points on the board. It also helped us be much more efficient and targeted on the weekends when we were game planning. 

The Quarterback Dilemma

One of the biggest mistakes I made as an OC that I see offensive coordinators make is their personnel at the quarterback position. You get to put 11 guys on the field, and you need to put your best 11 on the field. Too often we get caught up thinking we have to play a "quarterback" at the quarterback position. If your quarterback is not one of your best 11, then he does not need to be on the field. 

If you have a kid playing quarterback that doesn't throw well or run well and doesn't put any pressure on the defense, you need to evaluate if he gives you the best chance to win. We have all had quarterbacks who were great leaders that maybe didn't throw well or run well, but your team was it its best when they were on the field. 

But if you have a kid on the field that doesn't run well or throw well, and the defense doesn't have to account for him, then you might need to look at playing a different kid. Then you need to adjust your system to fit your best guys being on the field. 

Adapt To The Skillset 

If you are an air raid team and you don't have a quarterback that can execute air raid concepts, you have two choices. Put a kid at QB who can execute those concepts, or put one of your best 11 at the quarterback position and build your offense to their skill set. The same is true for any offensive system you might run. Great offensive coordinators are able to find a way to get their best 11 on the field where they can capitalize on their skillset. Adapt your play calling to the strengths and skills of the guy taking the snaps. 

QB Touches The Ball Every Snap

Your quarterback is the only player who is going to touch the ball every single play. If you have a kid who can do dynamic things, then it is okay to snap him the ball. I understand that not every kid is capable mentally of the responsibility of communicating the play and taking a snap. But if you are struggling on offense and your QB is putting any sort of pressure on the defense, you might consider changing who is taking the snap every play. 

Who gives you the best chance to win the football game? Who is the guy you can put at quarterback that can increase your production numbers? 

It might be that you don't have a quarterback who gives you the best chance to win, or it might be that your starter is injured. Your backup may be a great kid, but does he give you the best chance to win? 

We went through this a couple of times in my career. We had a kid who had come through our system as a QB. He spot played as a 10th grader, and then was ready to take the starting job as a junior. He worked hard and did everything right. Three games into the season we were struggling to score points. We were doing our self-scout analysis and realized we had most of our explosive and productive plays when we were in our wildcat personnel. We went back and watched all of our first three games and looked at the data. The data said we were averaging 4.4 yards per play with our QB taking the snap, and 8.2 yards a play when our "wildcat" was taking the snap. 

We made a decision to retool our offense to give our wildcat the majority of the snaps. We already were a read based offense that had elements of misdirection. We decided to do more of that with a better athlete taking the snap. He had a decent arm, but he was not going to be able to throw us down the field making progression reads. We set up our pass game with more "him" balls. A him ball is where I tell the QB to throw to "him," or a specific player. That took pressure off the QB. 

Building Concepts 

We ran inside zone, outside zone, counter, and power. We built our concepts to play off each other as a series. We ran outside with the back in a sidecar position. To complement this, we ran counter off of outside zone action with the QB carrying the ball. This was simple for our guys to execute, but stressed the defense. Below is our QB counter concept. 

The QB is going to ride the back as the back accelerates through the mesh. The QB is going to pull the football get downhill. The guard is pulling to kick, and the Y or H back is going to wrap to the PSLB. This is a very simple concept. We can also wrap the guard and kick with the Y. The linebackers cannot fly on flow as they must read the guard. 

We then built a boot concept as a play action component off the QB counter. When the safeties added themselves to the box, we were able to take advantage of space. The blocking looked the same, with the BSG pulling to account for the unblocked edge player. The QB is going to sell the OS Zone fake to the back, take one step as if he is pulling to run counter, then gain depth and width. 

He was going to have a two man read, looking at the flat first, then the crosser. The key was the timing of the routes and the QB understanding the timing. If the QB does not have the flat or the crosser, run. 

If you have a kid who can run the ball well that can take snaps, it puts a lot of pressure on the defense. Even if he doesn't throw particularly well, you can build concepts into your pass game that simplify things. We used sprint out and boot concepts where he had a simple high-low read. If the read wasn't there, he could run. We would throw fast screens as an extension of the run game, and would throw hitches and verticals.

The big thing I want to get you to think about is simple. Do we have our best 11 on the field? Are we married to a system, or are we married to production? 

This is just a small example of a simple way to put together a series. There was more too this, but this is how it started. As you begin to look at what you are doing and put together a package for a more dynamic player, build off what your kids already know. Take that prior knowledge and build a simple series of plays that complement each other. 

Importance of Preparation

One of the biggest parts of our success was our preparation. You have to do a great job of game planning for your opponents which will greatly improve your play calling ability. If you want to be more prepared each week, I highly recommend you check out my game and practice planning resource. I spent much of my career as a coordinator. I was an offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator, and coached at both the high school and college levels. I have made available all of our game and practice planning resources that helped us win more games. These have everything you need to be more prepared. They are editable and customizable, and are available as an instant download.  https://sellfy.com/p/AndN/ 

It includes everything from a scouting report template, to weekly practice plans and scripts, to a two-sided color call sheet, and more! Each of the nine documents are fully editable and customizable! Order today and start preparing for your first game right now! This helped us be able to be prepared to attack the defense and put more points on the board. It also helped us be much more efficient and targeted on the weekends when we were game planning. 

Using a SWOT Analysis With A Struggling Offense

There is nothing more frustrating for an offensive coordinator than not being able to move the ball consistently. It is frustrating when you can't get first downs to keep the chains moving. You want to give your defense a chance to rest, while also controlling field position. Ultimately, you need to put some points on the board. 

When you are struggling on offense you have to look at why you are struggling. This is where I recommend a SWOT Analysis for coaches. SWOT stands for:

• Strengths
• Weaknesses
• Opportunities 
• Threats

This is a tool that has been used in the business world for decades, and also can be a powerful tool in sport. 

Listen, if you are struggling on offense I can tell you that I have been there. I have been in situations where we couldn't buy a first down. The SWOT analysis helps you to figure out what you are during currently, and what you need to change and adjust to improve. This is a valuable tool used in the business world that is also a valuable tool for coaches to use. 

At the end of the day you have two choices. You can keep doing what you have been doing and get what you have been getting, or you can make some adjustments and strive for a better, more desirable result. 

Before we perform the SWOT analysis, we are going to answer some overarching questions:

• Are you doing simple things that it takes to be successful on offense?
• Communicating the play to the unit, then QB/OL communication pre-snap
• Lining Up Right
• Base fundamentals- Eye Discipline, footwork, etc
• Are you getting your best players touches?
• Are your taking advantage of space?
• Are you running into a loaded box?
• Is there a particular front or coverage you are struggling with? 
• Are you running your identity concept?

These questions will give us some background information we will use for our SWOT analysis. Great leaders Analyze, Adjust, and Adapt. 

SWOT Analysis

Strengths and Weaknesses

The first thing we are going to to is talk about our strengths and weaknesses. We are going to look at our personnel strengths and weaknesses, our concept strengths and weaknesses, our practice strengths and weaknesses, and our process strengths and weaknesses.

Personnel

With personnel, I want to look at our best players and our best position group. We are going to rank our offensive players from top to bottom with their position. Next we are going to rank our position groups. This helps us to determine our strongest and weakest players and position groups.

Is our offense designed to play to our strengths of our personnel? Are we doing things that ask too much of our weakest personnel or position groups? Are the best players on the field? Are we finding ways to get our best 11 on the field at the same time? 

Then we going to look at our data. Are we getting the ball to our best players the most? If so, what is the result of their touches? Do we need to change how we are getting them or trying to get them the ball? If we aren't, what do we need to do to get them more touches? Are we taking shots? This is a big one. We want to take a couple of shots each week.

I like to look at each player and look at their average yards per touch. Sometimes the really good athlete isn't as good with the ball in his hands, and the guy we think isn't as athletic is actually more explosive. We are going to look at that to determine if the right guys are in the right places, and the ball is getting to them in the best ways for us to gain the most yards.

Concepts

This is a great segway into our concept analysis. We are going to again look at the data. What concept has been our most effective? Who is the personnel involved in that concept? Do we have better personnel to execute that concept? What concepts are not effective? 

To determine effectiveness you need to have a metric. I look at average yards per play, negative plays, and explosive plays. We want a run concept to average 5 yards, with less than 5% negative plays and 15% explosive. With pass concepts we want to average 10 yards per play with less than 5% negative plays and 25% explosive. For fast screens we use our run metrics, as these are an extension of our run game. We look at each of our concepts and then rank them. Then we look at how many times we called each concept. 

Here is an example of an analysis on our run and pass concepts. You can do this with Excel, or you can use a report to find this information. We use Recon Football to generate this data. 

Are we calling our most effective concepts most? If not, why? How can we adjust our play calling so we call our best concepts more often? Do we have the right guys getting the ball? 

If we see that we have a bunch of negative concepts, we are going to figure out why. What do we need to do to fix those concepts? Is it a personnel issue, a practice or drill issue, or is it an issue that we can't fix. If we can't fix it, we are going to scrap the concept. 

In the image above we can see that when we call a run, 35% of our runs result in a pass. This is because we use pre and post snap RPO's. I can see that we need to look at some concepts in our pass game to figure out why they are less effective. Is it a formation issue or a protection issue? Is it a scheme issue or a coaching issue? What adjustments can we make to improve these concepts? How can we coach them better? 

The Team You Are Watching on Film Is Not The Same Team You Will Play This Week

As you put your game plan together for this week's opponent, I wanted to give you something that hopefully will help you to be more prepared, and that you can use very week this season. This is a premise that is vital and can keep you from losing games to teams you should not lose to. 

The Team You Are Watching on Film is Not the Same Team You Will Play Next Week. 

When you watch film of the opponent you are getting ready to play, you are watching the most recent version of them. You are not watching the future version of them who you will see after another week of practice and preparation. They are going to add new wrinkles. Just like you are working to correct mistakes, they are going to correct mistakes. They are going to have a key guy back from an injury. They are going to be a much better team than they were last week. Hopefully you are also going to be a much better team than you were last week. 

It is very easy to get caught up watching a team on film and thinking, "these guys shouldn't score a point on us." Or, "we should score 50 on these guys." I have been there and done that, and it almost never works out well. Statements like this lead to disappointment. Elite coaches expect to see the best version of the team you are going to play, not the worst version. Are you preparing for the the version of the team you saw on film last week, or the version of the team you will see this week? 

Have you ever walked away from a game when you got beat and said, "what just happened?" If you haven't, you never want to. There is no worse feeling. Every single time it came down to our attitude towards our opponent. We were arrogant, and arrogance will always get you beat. 

Most games are won or lost before they are ever played. One team is hungry, works hard, and believes they are going to win because they have earned it. The other team is overconfident, goes through the motions, and believes they are entitled to win. They believe the other team is going to lay down for them. Which won do you think has a better chance of winning the game? This is the recipe for upsets. 

I see it most when people go from being hungry to fed, or when they go from being the hunter to the hunted. You fight so hard to reach a goal, and you forget the hard work and the mentality it took to get there.

Beyond the scheme you are preparing this week, what are going to do to prepare your players to practice with a champions mindset? How will you develop their hunger to strive to become better every single day? Players are going to play scoreboard football, where they look at what your next opponent did against other teams. They will compare scores. Don't ever let yourself get caught up in this. You have to instill in your players and coaches that what they did against this team or that is irrelevant. It should not affect your preparation one bit. 

As you begin to prepare for your game this week, keep these things in your mind and focus on being the best version of you, and being prepared to play the best version of your opponent. 

Game And Practice Planning Resource: If you want to be more prepared each week, I highly recommend you check out my game and practice planning resource. I spent much of my career as a coordinator. I was an offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator, and coached at both the high school and college levels. I have made available all of our game and practice planning resources that helped us win more games. These have everything you need to be more prepared. They are editable and customizable, and are available as an instant download.  https://sellfy.com/p/AndN/ 

It includes everything from a scouting report template, to practice plans, to a two-sided color call sheet, and more! Each of the nine documents are fully editable and customizable! Order today and start preparing for your first game right now! This helped us be able to be prepared to attack the defense and put more points on the board. It also helped us be much more efficient and targeted on the weekends when we were game planning. 

Defense Game Planning: Keys to Dominating Preparation

In my career I was lucky to have had an opportunity be an offensive and defensive coordinator, and to spend time at the high school and college levels. I worked with some great football coaches who were masters at preparation. I wanted to give you a couple of things you can use to be more dominant on defense this season.

We had one goal on defense. That was to get the ball back as quickly as possible. There are four ways to get the ball back. 

We wanted to do everything we could to get the opposing offense off the field and to get our offense on the field. One of the most important factors in doing this was being prepared. 

The first key to preparation is to have good data. We never went a game without entering data on our opponent. If coaches share the responsibility of entering the data, you can knock out a game in less than 15 minutes. 

If you are a young coach who has the responsibility of entering data, take the responsibility serious. The data you enter is going to be the difference between knowing what a team will do and not knowing.

Once we enter the data, we then focus on the two keys to stopping our opponent. 

We want to stop their dude, and take away what is is that they do. We want to make sure that they aren't going to beat us with their best player or their best play. If they are going to score it is going to have to be with someone else running something else.

The data we enter is going to give us two things. First, it is going to give us tendencies. A tendency is something done 65% of the time. I want to know what it is they do most frequently. We are going to look at down and distance tendencies, field/boundary tendencies, personnel tendencies, field/zone tendencies, backfield tendencies, and formation tendencies. We will first look at run/pass tendencies for each of these.

Below is an example of run/pass tendencies for 3 games. This is from a company called Recon Sports

All we did was take the data we were already entering, upload it to Recon, and we had beautiful reports that helped us to be better prepared. Instead of spending hours with pen and paper, and filtering and sorting excel spreadsheets, these reports were ready to give us the tendencies we needed. This helped me to know what defensive calls would be good in certain situations, and what calls might not be as good. 

Game Planning Key: Find Their 11th Guy

 Whether you are a seasoned offensive coordinator, or it is your first year leading the offense, there is something important you can and should do every single week when you are game planning. We found this one thing was really good against everyone we played, but especially when we played someone who was very talented. 

When you build your game plan you are are always going to look for leverage, numbers, and green grass. You are going to find the formations you think will give you a numerical advantage. You are looking for great angles for your offensive line. You want to find green grass for your skill guys, because green grass gives you explosive opportunities. You are always going to look at personnel, and today we are going to drill down to one thing within personnel that can give you an advantage.

One thing that is often overlooked is finding their 11th guy. Every single team has an 11th guy. That is their 11th best guy. Everyone, no matter how good they are, has an 11th best guy. Even teams you play that are loaded with 4 and 5 star recruits have an 11th best. 

Most teams you play have at least one guy they are hiding. They have one guy they are protecting because he isn't as talented as their other players. Some teams might have two or three of these guys. When you play someone who is really good, or even someone who isn't as talented, spend time looking for the 11th best guy. 

If the 11th best guy is a defensive end, figure out how you can attack him with your identity concept. If their 11th guy is a corner, find ways to match your best receiver up with that guy. If he is a safety and your best skill guy is an outside receiver, how can you adjust a formation to match up your receiver with that safety? Just because a guy plays outside receiver doesn't mean you can't move him around to match him up on a linebacker or a safety.

One example of this was when we were playing a top ranked team who was very, very good. They ran the 4-3 and played 2 high. They played base most snaps because they could. They had a dominant defensive line and their secondary and outside backers were really good. The Mike was really good, but he was their slowest defender. He was a guy who was very physical, but he didn't run well. We wanted to get him in coverage situations. 

Think Players Not Plays

One of the most important things we can do as coaches is to get our dudes touches. Whether you are playing for state titles or just starting a rebuilding process, you have a best player. You might not have the best athlete on the field, but you always have the best athlete or athletes on your team. Too many guys concern themselves with what they don't have. You will never win a game with guys that are not on your roster. But you will win games if you focus on the guys on your roster, and maximizing their abilities when you build your game plan.

I am not going to get into the psychology of winning right now, but if you don't think you can win, you won't. If you don't think you can score, you won't. If you believe you will score points, you will score more points than if you lack that belief. A big part of building belief is putting your players in a position where they can be most successful. 

When you build your game plan, think players as much as you think plays. When you begin to break down your opponent, look for leverage, numbers, and green grass. Where can we gain an advantage over our opponent? What formation will give us leverage, numbers, and grass? What concept will take advantage of that grass? And then, who is the best player to get the ball to to take advantage of leverage, numbers, and grass? 

That is a simplistic view of building your game plan. The reality is, if we run are throwing a tunnel screen, the tunnel will be more effective and explosive if we throw it to a fast player who can make people miss. If we throw it to a slower player who can't make people miss, the play won't be as effective. Who you are getting the ball to is as important as the play you are calling to get the ball into space. 

What Are You Going To Do About It?

At this point your season has ended, and unless you won a championship, chances are your season didn't end the way you wanted. Every year around this time I would visit with my dad who was a retired coach. I would tell him all the things that went wrong, and he would always say the same thing. "What are you doing to do about it?" He didn't phrase it as a question, as much as a declaration that you need to grow and adapt.

As you come out of your holiday break, there is something very important every coach needs to do. You need to take a very deep dive into your program, and decide what you need to do to make it become the best it can be. You need to do this without pride. You need to look at things without letting your emotions or your ego get in the way. 

At the end of each season, I made a list of things that kept us from being our best. This list focused on the following areas: 

• On the field
• Schematics, Personnel, Situational Awareness, Play Calling
• Were we putting guys in a position to be successful? 
• Were we prepared for the situations we faced? 
• Practice
• Organization, Practice Schedules, Install Schedules, Scripts, Time on Field
• Game Day Operations
• Travel, Itinerary, Pre-Game, Pre-Game Warm-Ups, Coach to Coach and Coach to Player Communication, Box Logistics, Workflow, Half-Time Operations, In-Game Adjustments 
• Off-Season
• Program, Logistics, Set-up, Strengths, Weaknesses
• Are we getting guys out of their comfort zone?
• Are we getting stronger, faster, and more explosive?
• Spring Ball
• Organization, Set-Up, Practice Schedules, Install Schedules, Field Set-Up
• Returning Personnel
• Evaluate Personnel, Rate On Board, Who Are Dudes, Who Could Be Dudes, Best Leaders, Position Changes
• Character, Leadership, and Program Culture
• Define our current culture, character level of athletes, how will we improve leadership?

The hardest part of this process was looking at things and not justifying mediocrity. Ultimately, this is how you find the weaknesses in your program that are holding back the success of your team. This brings us back to the question, "What are you going to do about it?"

Once you identify areas of weakness, you need to build a plan to attack these areas of weakness. Depending on where you are as a program, you may have several weaknesses. It is difficult to attack them all. One thing to caution is to be careful that you don't treat the symptoms without treating the disease. During the season you are often going to apply band-aids to stop the bleeding. The off-season is the time when you can go through chemotherapy and treat the actual disease that impedes development.

What I mean is this... Often there is a deeper issue that causes problems within multiple areas of your program. Poor leadership can affect the effort and attitude of your players. This affects their learning. You might focus on improving your meetings and how you teach concepts, but this will only treat the symptom. You have to find the disease within your program. If you treat the disease, the symptoms will go away. 

Game and Practice Planning Resources That Helped Us Win!

Back when I first became a coordinator, I had no clue how to prepare for a game. We used to say, "we do what we do, and we aren't changing." The truth was, I really didn't know how to prepare and organize a game plan. After doing tons of research and visiting a variety of coaches, we began to become much more detailed in our approach to game planning. And boy did it make a difference.

I have been blessed to have had the opportunity to coordinate all three sides of the ball. I have been an offensive, defensive, and special teams coordinator. I have been a coordinator at the college level, and had an opportunity to coach all three phases. It was an amazing opportunity to gain a wealth of experience learning how to game plan and prepare a practice week.

As we began to become more detailed in our approach to game planning, our success quickly increased. We improved our offensive points per game each year. We improved our rushing yards per game. We improved in every statistical category. It wasn't that we found a magic bullet. We just were more prepared on gameday. Our practices became more efficient. Our organization was much better. And while we were more detailed, our game planning took less time on the weekends. We saved ourselves a couple of hours that allowed us a little more time to recharge the batteries. It wasn't that we did less work. On the contrary, we were more prepared than ever before. The difference was that we had a system.

A few years ago I was speaking at a clinic about our game planning and an FBS coordinator asked me after the talk to go through what we do. I shared with him our offensive game planning resource and he used it through the spring. He emailed me back that it was a game changer. It was an honor to have him use these documents. After speaking at clinics and hearing that more coaches didn't know where to start, I decided to make these available.

Here is a link to my offensive game planning documents: https://sellfy.com/p/AndN/ 

It includes everything from a scouting report template, to practice plans, to a two-sided color call sheet, and more! Each of the nine documents are fully editable and customizable! Order today and start preparing for your first game right now! At one time this was $99, but it is available right now for less than $13!

Here are a couple of screen shots to show you what our call sheet looks like: 

This shows you a small portion of it. It is a fully editable, customizable two sided call sheet. It gives you the ability to better organize and be prepared on game day. It helped us to be better play callers on game day. There are eight other fully customizable documents! Some of the top high school programs in the country use this, as do several college programs!

When I was a defensive coordinator we adapted this to our defensive preparation! 

Here is a link to the defensive game planning documents. It includes 12 fully editable and customizable documents. https://sellfy.com/p/AY1u/ These are what we used to post 6 shutouts when I was a defensive coordinator. Defensive coordinators at all levels of football are using this. Again, it is less than $13 right now!

And finally, I put together a special teams resource. This has everything you need, included drill tape, practice tape, and game footage. It includes teaching presentations and scouting forms just for special teams! https://sellfy.com/p/tJwz/ This helped us to build dominating special teams! It is just $14.99! It will help you win more games. 

I wanted these to be available at a very reasonable cost. These can help you to be more successful on the field and more efficient in the office! 

 Last year I got hooked up with CoachTube, and put together three courses for offensive football coaches. I put together two courses on RPO's, and a course on Building An Elite System of Communication. All of these courses will help you to score more points! 

https://coachtube.com/users/coachvint

All three of these courses are detailed, with everything you need to be more explosive and to score more points. 

The course on communication gives you a detailed approach to your gameday communication. I give you a system and a process to improve the quality of conversations, leading to improved play calling on game day. This course has received outstanding reviews from coaches at all level of football. A coach with multiple state titles told me this course helped them to be much more efficient and explosive this season. 

My two RPO courses take you through a systematic process of installing RPO's into your offensive system. RPO's put the defense in conflict, forcing them to defend all 53 yards of width and all 6 skill players every single play. I not only give you a system, but I teach you the methods to develop your own RPO concepts. 

https://coachtube.com/users/coachvint