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. 

As we have entered the future, using AI!

Using AI to Create a Dominant Defensive Game Plan

If you want to be able to call the right defense at the right time, then you need to check out my newest resource! I spent over a year building an AI Game Planning Analyst that will help you save several hours each weekend while being more prepared than ever before! Using AI To Create a Dominant Defensive Game Plan will revolutionize how you prepare for opponents. 

This was tested with programs of all levels, and every coach that used it said it revolutionized their game planning. Instead of flipping through multiple reports, you have everything in one place. The best part... You can talk to your data! You can ask questions and get responses. This is available at a special price right now! For a limited time, you can use the code AI at checkout to save $15. 

AI will not only save you countless hours each weekend, but AI will help you to be more prepared than ever before. AI can see data so much deeper than a human can. I walk you through how to use AI to truly supercharge your defensive game plan. When you get my resource, you get access to my custom AI Analyst! Here is a demo video of the analyst and how it provides you your data, your way, all in one place!

Using AI To Create a Dominant Defensive Game Plan will revolutionize how you prepare for opponents. Order now to get access at a special introductory price! I spent a year beta testing this with coaches at all level of football. Every single one said this has revolutionized their game planning! Use the code AI at checkout to save a few $$!

AI will also help you know what to script in your 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. AI gives us the exact information we need!

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

Using AI to Create a Dominant Defensive Game Plan

If you want to be able to call the right defense at the right time, then you need to check out my newest resource! I spent over a year building an AI Game Planning Analyst that will help you save several hours each weekend while being more prepared than ever before! Using AI To Create a Dominant Defensive Game Plan will revolutionize how you prepare for opponents. 

This was tested with programs of all levels, and every coach that used it said it revolutionized their game planning. Instead of flipping through multiple reports, you have everything in one place. The best part... You can talk to your data! You can ask questions and get responses. This is available at a special price right now! For a limited time, you can use the code AI at checkout to save $15. 

Using AI to Supercharge Your Offensive Game Plan!

AI can help you be more explosive on defense by supercharging your game planning! Imagine how much better of a play caller you will be if you know what the defense is going to do! If you know they are playing zone coverage, you can make a call to beat zone. If you know that they are going to play cover 3, you can call a cover 3 beater. Instead of guessing, you are going be able to call more touchdown plays! Using AI to Supercharge Your Offensive Game Plan will completely revolutionize your game planning! It will save you several hours each week!

This is available at a special price. That price will be increasing, so don't wait. This will give you everything you need to use AI. Whether you are a beginner to technology, or you are a technological guru, this will give you a huge advantage over your opponents. Instead of spending hours combing through reports, you can have all of your information in one place, allowing you to quickly make decisions and build your game plan. Use the code AI at checkout to save $15 for a limited time! 

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. 

Using AI to Supercharge Your Offensive Game Plan! AI is not coming, AI is here! 

AI can help you be more explosive on defense by supercharging your game planning! Imagine how much better of a play caller you will be if you know what the defense is going to do! If you know they are playing zone coverage, you can make a call to beat zone. If you know that they are going to play cover 3, you can call a cover 3 beater. Instead of guessing, you are going be able to call more touchdown plays! Using AI to Supercharge Your Offensive Game Plan will completely revolutionize your game planning! It will save you several hours each week! Instead of pouring over reports that aren't helpful to offensive coordinators, you can use AI to get your data, your way! 

This is available at a special price. That price will be increasing, so don't wait. This will give you everything you need to use AI. Whether you are a beginner to technology, or you are a technological guru, this will give you a huge advantage over your opponents. Instead of spending hours combing through reports, you can have all of your information in one place, allowing you to quickly make decisions and build your game plan. Use the code AI at checkout to save $15 for a limited time! 

Here is a video showing the power of AI!

You don't need to spend countless hours to figure out how to use AI. Use Using AI to Supercharge Your Offensive Game Plan and I will give you everything you need to start using AI right now! This is not a piece of software you have to renew each month or year. This is a resource that you will be able to use from day one. It includes access to the custom AI analysts I built! Remember to use the code AI at checkout! AI will help you get your time back on the weekends, while making you more prepared than ever!

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. 

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. 

Scripting for Success

When I first became an offensive coordinator I was reluctant to use scripts. I felt like it would lock me into being rigid and inflexible. The head coach I worked for suggested I read Bill Walsh's book, Finding the Winning Edge. The book opened my eyes to the value of preparation and scripting.

When I speak at clinics I get asked about how we script our openers each game. Many coaches already script their openers, but there are a large contingent of coaches who do not. Many of these coaches do a great job. It took me a few years to come around to the value of scripting our opening plays. A few of the reasons were:
1. What do we do if have a run scripted and it's 3rd and 8?
2. What if we get off script?
3. Will the script keep me from making calls based on the flow of the game?
4. Why would I build a script if I am going to be off script before getting through it?

Finally I decided I was going to go all-in on scripting. We decided on a 10 play script. The first play we called was going to be toss sweep from I Right. The 2nd play would be Iso weak in an I Right set. The third play would be play action off our power play, this time in I left. The fourth play would be iso from a 20 personnel look, and the 5th play would be a reverse off toss from I left. We continued our script for 10 plays. We stayed on script and scored 2 touchdowns in the first 6 plays, and our 3rd touchdown on play 10. I was sold. We could use more plays if we wanted as well.

The question is, why did we have success? How did scripting help us?
1. We were thinking clearly on Sunday afternoon when we built our script
It is a lot easier to call plays when your head is clear and you aren't distracted by emotions. By Sunday afternoon we have watched enough of our opponent to have a good idea what we like and don't like. This allows us to build an opening script for the game, as well as develop a call sheet that will help us be more efficient on game day.

2. We were able to have a specific system for setting up plays
We scripted plays that helped to set up explosive opportunities. We might script 3 downhill runs in our first 5 plays, and then on play 6 we would script play action off downhill pass and take a shot downfield. We might run toss sweep a couple of times and then script in a reverse. We were able to set our opponent up for big plays.

3. We made sure we ran a reverse or trick play before our opponent
This is something that is very important. Running your reverse or trick play first doubles your chance that it will be an explosive play. We wanted to make sure we had at least one trick play in our first 12 calls. We also wanted to make sure we actually ran a trick play. How many times have you practiced a trick play and then never ran it in a game? I got tired of having a 5 minute period designed to work our trick plays, only to not run them in the game. Scripting them helped us actually call them during the game.

4. Our kids knew what we were running because we practiced our script each day
We opened our team period running our script on air. This helped our players to know what was coming and in what order. This helped us to play with confidence and develop a rhythm to open the game.

5. We planned what we wanted to see from our opponents
We would script with some variety to see how our opponents would line up to certain formations and personnel groups. This helped us to be more efficient calling plays later in the game. We scripted 3 or 4 different formations in our first 12 plays.

What we found was that the longer we stayed on script, the better we were in the game. The earlier we left the script, the less effective we were. This isn't to say that we wouldn't take advantage of a misalignment or something unexpected from the defense. But the script was well thought out and made sense, giving us a high percentage opportunity to be effective early in the game.

Here are a couple of thoughts on scripting that can help you be more effective:
1. Script inside runs into the boundary and wide runs to the field.
For the most part you know where each play will end. You have an idea what hash you will be on. We wanted to make sure we used the field in the most efficient manner possible. This was a rule of thumb that helped us to be more effective early in the game.

2. Get your playmakers early touches
We scripted our best players go get touches early. We wanted to make sure we got them involved in the first two series. One season we had a great tight end. We made sure we threw at least one ball at him in our first 8 plays.

3. Don't worry if it's 3rd and 2 and you have a pass scripted
Some of our biggest plays came when we threw on run downs and ran on pass downs. It also helps you break tendencies.

4. Script your tempo
This is something we love to do. We will script in a couple of early nascar concepts. We also would script our freeze tempo to get our opponent to jump offsides early in the game. By scripting tempo we were able to use it in advantageous situations.

5. Call the Touchdown Play
If there was a money play, we called it early. If we had a huge matchup advantage somewhere, we exploited it early and often. We built that into our script.

Our script was located at the top of the front of our call sheet. We also had scripts for end of half and end of game situations. We worked these through the week which helped us to be much better prepared on game day.

Our scripts helped us to be more targeted in our practices, and we improved our explosiveness on offense. It was tough to stay on script at times. When things don't go well and you punt twice in your first six plays, it is easy to abandon the plan. We had to remember that sometimes we were not going to have things go our way early. But if you built your script well, you were setting up a big play.

A lot of coaches ask me about my call sheet and how we prepared. We have a very systematic approach that we have developed over a 20 year period. Last summer I made our offensive game planning documents available for coaches to purchase for a nominal fee. The response was outstanding. Coaches from all levels of football in the US and internationally began using this resource. The head coach from one of the top 5A programs in Texas said these documents helped them to be much more prepared.

If you are interested in this resource, click here: Offensive Game and Practice Planning Resource.  Every document in this resource is completely editable and customizable to your program. Everything you need is in this resource. You order it today and you will be able to immediately begin downloading the documents and using them to be better prepared. This even includes our 2-sided color calls sheet! It prints on to 11x14 paper. I also include our weekly and daily practice plans, wrist bands, scouting forms, and much, much more! For just a few dollars you will score more points and win more games with this resource! It is on sale right now, so don't delay!

I also have a defensive game and practice planning resource that can be ordered here: Defensive Game and Practice Planning Resource. It has everything you defensive staff would need to dominate!

I also have a special teams resource available here: Special Teams Resource It is awesome because it includes teaching presentations and video for every phase of special teams!

 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

Developing an Offensive Game Plan and Call Sheet: Less is More!

Earlier this year I was speaking at a clinic in Greenwich, Connecticut, when a coach asked me what the biggest issue is with ineffective game planning. The answer was easy. Numerous times I have tried to put too much into the game plan. I tried to run too many concepts from too many formations. We would often have over 100 different calls in our game plan. The problem with this is that we couldn't practice everything we were going to run in the game. We wasted a lot of time practicing concepts we wouldn't end up running. Many of you are probably nodding your head because you have done the same thing!

I decided to take an analytical approach. We had approximately 50 team reps each day, 25 inside run reps, 25 team on air reps, and 25 7-on-7 reps each day. If we had four days of practice, we would get 500 reps a week. These 500 reps were sacred. We had to make sure we used them wisely so we were prepared each week.

The first thing we did was cut down on the number of calls we had in our game plan. In a typical game we are going to run between 70 and 85 plays. We aren't going to run 85 different plays. We are going to repeat plays throughout the game. And often, we are going to find a call that works and repeat it over and over. Once we find a formation and concept that works, we often will call that concept several times.

As we began to build our game plan we started with a menu. Our menu consisted of 24 things we felt would be best on Friday night. When I talk about a menu, I am talking about the entire call. This is how we built our menu. As we watched film of our opponents, we answered a worksheet with 63 questions on it. The answers to these questions helped us to get a clear picture of the strengths and weaknesses of the defense. Below is a screen shot of the first 12 questions of this worksheet.

We examined four areas of the defense. First, we wanted to know how they were going to align. We looked at their alignments to find what formations would give us leverage, numbers, and green grass. Where could we find an alignment advantage?

Second, we examined their personnel. Who were their best players? Who were their worst players? Where could we find a matchup we could win? This is a vital part of game planning that helped us win several games. One season we were playing a team with a great defense. They shut our offense down in the first quarter. However, there was one matchup we knew we could win. Our X receiver was better than their corner. To stop the run they were putting their corner on an island. We scored three times in the first half, all on vertical routes to our X. We ran 35 plays in the first half for 220 yards. 170 of those yards came on 3 long touchdown passes to our X. 

Third, we wanted to know when they blitzed. When did they call 5 and 6 man pressures? This helped us to determine when we would call our screens. If a team blitzed 75% of the time we were 2nd and medium, we were going to call our screens on those downs. 

To find this information, we have turned to using AI

Using AI to Supercharge Your Offensive Game Plan! AI is not coming, AI is here! 

AI can help you be more explosive on defense by supercharging your game planning! Imagine how much better of a play caller you will be if you know what the defense is going to do! If you know they are playing zone coverage, you can make a call to beat zone. If you know that they are going to play cover 3, you can call a cover 3 beater. Instead of guessing, you are going be able to call more touchdown plays! Using AI to Supercharge Your Offensive Game Plan will completely revolutionize your game planning! It will save you several hours each week! Instead of pouring over reports that aren't helpful to offensive coordinators, you can use AI to get your data, your way! 

This is available at a special price. That price will be increasing, so don't wait. This will give you everything you need to use AI. Whether you are a beginner to technology, or you are a technological guru, this will give you a huge advantage over your opponents. Instead of spending hours combing through reports, you can have all of your information in one place, allowing you to quickly make decisions and build your game plan. Use the code AI at checkout to save $15 for a limited time! 

Here is a video showing the power of AI!

You don't need to spend countless hours to figure out how to use AI. Use Using AI to Supercharge Your Offensive Game Plan and I will give you everything you need to start using AI right now! This is not a piece of software you have to renew each month or year. This is a resource that you will be able to use from day one. It includes access to the custom AI analysts I built! Remember to use the code AI at checkout! AI will help you get your time back on the weekends, while making you more prepared than ever!

Fourth, we wanted to know how they handled tempo. Did they huddle? How did they get their call in? What was their answer to offenses playing fast? A few years back we played a team that was much better than us physically. They were huge up front. The one weakness was that they couldn't adjust to tempo. They couldn't get lined up right if the offense played fast. We had no business beating them, but our tempo overwhelmed them. 

Once we analyze these four areas, we begin to build our menu. We want to major in 24 things each week. We then would have 12 things we would minor in. This gave us a total of 36 calls for a game. If we did a great job preparing, we would not have to deviate from this list. Below are two screenshots of showing our weekly menu. This is a simple excel worksheet we could adjust each week. 

Once we have our menu built, we begin to fill in our call sheet. Our call sheet is very unique in that it gives us specific call scripts based on situations we will face each game. What we did each season was analyzed how many times we faced each down and distance situation. We then built a script for each situation with a column for left hash, right hash, and middle hash. For each situation, we would enter the defense we were most likely going to face. This helped us to have a specific set of plays we felt would take advantage of the defense for each situation. The plays on the call sheet came directly from our menu. Many of these plays would be repeated throughout this call sheet. Below is a screen shot of our call sheet with situational scripts. 

The number of plays we had scripted for each situation was based on the number of times we would face that situation each game. We had would have more 2nd and medium calls than we would 2nd and short. By putting together these scripts on our call sheet, we were able to call plays faster on Friday Night. We were able to call better plays based on what the defense was doing against us. Each time we called a play I would make a red mark or a green mark during the game. The red mark meant the play was not positive. A green mark meant it was good. This gave us a point of reference as we went through the game. Typically I would go right down the script each time we faced that specific situation. 

On the other side of our call sheet we had sections designed to for additional important areas of our game plan. We had a section with calls designed to get our best athletes the ball in open space. We wanted to make sure we got our best athletes enough quality touches. We had calls based on each formation. This was similar to our play menu. We had another section with specific coverage beaters. We also had a script built for our last play based on field position. There were several other sections as well designed to help us make better calls in the heat of battle. 

Once our call sheet was built, we began to build our scripts for the week. We scripted everything we did. If a team we played brought a 5 man pressure 75% of the time on third and long, we made sure we ran a 5 man pressure during that situation in our team period of practice. Everything we did was tied to our preparation worksheet and the reports we ran on our opponents. I am not smart enough to call things from the hip, so our preparation was vital to our success on offense.

If you want to improve your preparation, I have made each of our game planning documents available for download. You can click the link here: Offensive Game Planning Documents. There are 9 documents included in this download. Each document is completely editable and customizable to your program. You can order them today and download them immediately. Here are the documents that are included:

You don't have to recreate the wheel! Everything you need is all ready to go for this season! For less than $15 you will be better prepared and more explosive on offense! Each document is already formatted, saving you hours of work! Simply type in your information and go to work! You will call better plays and score more points. These sheets will also make you look like a professional! 

I also have a packet for the defense available for download! These documents helped us post 6 shutouts in 10 games! Everything you need as a defensive coordinator is here for you to prepare to dominate your opponents! Defensive Game Planning Packet

As you build your gameplay, start with a 24 play menu. Remember, you want to be able to give everything you are going to run in the game enough quality reps in practice. You don't want to run a bunch of stuff in practice you may not run in a game! I hope you have gotten something from this article you can use!

A few months 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 on multiple RPO Concepts. It will give you a simple process for implementing them into your offense.

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

 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