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
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?
Sometimes we find that certain concepts are not as effective from certain formations. One year we learned that our four verticals concept was better from 3x1 than 2x2, and with our 5 man protection rather than our 6 man play action protection.
If you are outmatched upfront or have an undersized or inexperienced offensive line, you want to ask what you are doing to help your line. Are we using misdirection? Are we giving them an unfavorable box where there are more defenders than we can account for? Adding some misdirection can help our offensive line to be more effective.
We also want to add a trick play or two each week. The key here is when you add them you need to call them. Trick plays can create opportunities for explosive plays and shot plays.
If you stopped right here you would be able to make impactful change, but we wanted to dig deeper.
Processes
Next we look at our processes. What do we do well with our in-game processes? Do we need to change how we get plays in and out of the game. If we huddle, do we need to go no huddle? If we are no huddle, do we need to huddle? Do we need to play faster? Do we need to play slower? Do we need to change who is on the sideline or in the box?
When we needed to shorten the game but still wanted to play with tempo, we added the sugar huddle. We also added a fire drill. This is where we lined up fast and made it look like we were running tempo. We would bluff the snap and look at the sideline. We then would signal a new tempo call from a different formation. We would quickly shift to the new formation and snap the ball. This was good against defenses that liked to change their call when we looked to the sideline. We added this one season in the 5th week when we were struggling. It helped us create explosive opportunities, while shortening the game. We would do this three or four times a game. It also gave us more vanilla looks, because DC's didn't want to get caught in a bad call when they didn't know what the formation would end up being.
Do we need to change our snap count?
That was an area of concern when we went from a huddle team to a no huddle team that played with multiple tempos. We wanted to make sure we varied our snap counts. When we went to a clap, we added a couple of variations to keep the defense from being able to time up the snap count.
Practices
We then look at our practice schedule and meetings. What are the strengths of our practices and what are the weaknesses? Do we need to adjust how we practice? Do we need more individual time? Do we need more group time? We were struggling with our zone combination blocks back when we first installed inside zone. We added a period with our running backs and offensive line where they worked in pods. This helped our backs to better read the combos, and our offensive line to better secure the down guy while seeing the backer they were combo blocking to. We improved our yards per carry on inside zone by 2.2 yards per carry after adding this drill.
How can we adjust our practices to be more prepared on game day? Do we need to shorten practice? Do we need to lengthen practice? Are we practicing what we will actually run on game day?
A couple of things that can help you is scripting your practices so you know what you are running and when you are running it, as well as what look you want to see. This helps you be more targeted. We also want to make sure we are adding time for what we need to improve. We want to fix us before we worry about our opponents. Fixing us will help us be more effective the following week
Opportunities
After we look at analyzed our strengths and weaknesses, we are going to look at our opportunities. Based on what are strengths and weaknesses are, what opportunities do we have? What complementary plays can we add to build off what we have done? If we have shown a particular tendency, can we break that tendency? If we find a certain consistent weakness, what happens when we eliminate that weakness?
In 2000, we ran the football. We did not throw the football. Teams were loading the box against us. This is where our whole premise came about for adding pre-snap fast screen concepts into our offense. We ran the ball really well considering we were facing 8 and 9 man fronts. When we had twin receivers we often had leverage on the force player. When we added the now screen to #1 with #2 blocking for him, we took advantage of space. It was an opportunity that came out of an analysis after 3 games.
We also called more shots. Since the safeties were involved in the run game, we added an opportunity to take advantage of 1-on-1 matchups on the outside. We added an RPO on the backside of outside zone in 2004 after doing an analysis of what was giving us issues. Because our stretch often hit in the frontside B, the backside ILB was making the tackle because we weren't fast enough up front to cut him off. We decided to take advantage of this with a simple stick route. It slowed the backers down and helped our offensive line.
What opportunities have you created based on what you have done so far? In your struggles and your successes you will find opportunities.
Threats
If you want to be successful, you have to see issues before they arise. You have to be able to see around corners. What are the threats that you face? What happens if your starting quarterback gets hurt? What if your best running back goes down? Do you have players who are in danger of failing classes and being ineligible? Don't wait until you face these issues to have a plan in place. Threats can be both internal and external. Threats can exist within your organization, and they can come from outside your organization. Identifying these threats before they occur is key.
Harvey MaKay wrote a book many years ago called, "Dig Your Well Before You Are Thirsty." While the book was about building a network, the lesson of preparing for a problem before the problem exists is vital. Don't wait until there is a problem to have a plan to eliminate the problem.
What are the threats that could keep you from being as successful as possible? How can you eliminate the threats? What is your plan if the threats end up coming to fruition? Who is your emergency quarterback that can get you out of a game? If your QB goes down, does your backup give you the best chance to win, or do you need to have a plan to move another kid to quarterback? What if your center goes down? What if your headsets stop working? These are all things to prepare for before they happen.
Adapt and Adjust
You don't have to rewrite your entire playbook in the middle of the season if you are struggling on offense. Do a SWOT analysis and figure out where your strengths and weaknesses truly are. From there, what adjustments do you need to make? What opportunities can you take advantage of, and what are the threats that could derail your progress?
A few very simple, targeted changes can completely change the trajectory of your season. The big thing is you have to believe in the adjustments you make, and more importantly, get your players to believe.
It is very easy as an OC to get locked into doing what you have always done the way you have always done it. If you do what you have always done the way you have always done it, you will get what you have always gotten. Unless you are Alabama or Georgia, you probably need to get more.
Speaking of Alabama, Nick Saban is an example of growth. He knew to compete for championships he had to evolve his offensive philosophy. He gave his offensive coordinators the freedom to adapt their offense without changing their physical mentality. He trusted his guys. He didn't get out of his comfort zone as much as he adapted his comfort zone. He could have stayed the same and won 9 or 10 games every year. He wanted more. He wanted to compete for a national championship.
You have to ask yourself what the maximum is for your program, and then fit your offense to that maximum. The SWOT analysis gives you a method to make adjustments in times of adversity, allowing you to maximize your performance on the field.
Below is a YouTube Video I did on a SWOT analysis.
Being prepared for your opponent is a big part of beating people who are more talented than you are. 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/
https://coachtube.com/users/coachvint
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.
New Book
Over the last several months, I have stepped out of my comfort zone and wrote a new book about faith and purpose. The book is available as a paperback on Amazon, and as an eBook for the Kindle App. The cool thing about the Kindle app is that you can read the book on any device. I invite you to read it, and discover the power you receive when you make a decision to walk with the Lord. Here is a link to the book: Finding Faith
Since publishing the book, I have received numerous texts, calls, and emails, from people who are going through similar trials and tribulations. They were feeling many of the same things I was feeling. The found comfort in the book. They also found they had a desire to change and to live better. They wanted more joy.
I would invite you to read the book and discover the possibilities that God has planned for your life.
Pract
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