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. 

5 Keys to Offensive Success

Regardless of what system you run or what level you coach, there are 5 things you need to do if you want to be successful on offense. These five things make a huge difference in the level of success you will enjoy. 

Before I get into the five things you must do, I want to focus on perhaps the biggest mistake we make as offensive coordinators. One of the easiest ways to jack up your offensive game plan is to try to do too much. It is very easy to draw things on the board and come up with a million great ideas. Those ideas always look good on paper and on the board. Then you get into the game, and your players don't execute them very well. You find yourself scratching your head. How come this concept didn't work. 

When you add too much into a game plan, you are going to be frustrated. It is very difficult to be good at anything you do, because you can't rep everything. The most important thing you can do when you build your game plan is to cut things out. Find the best of what you like and build from there. 

Think about this. You are going to snap the ball somewhere between 55 and 75 times a game, depending on how fast you play, how much you throw, and how much time your opponent has the football. If you play fast, and you play a team that plays fast, you might get 85 or 90 snaps. If you play a team that runs the ball and eats clock, you might get 45 or 50 snaps. Even you get 80 snaps in a game, you aren't going to need to run 80 different plays. In fact, you are going to repeat things that are working, and cut things out that don't work. It is okay to run the same play back-to-back, and even three or four times in a row. In 1999 we ran I-Right 42 Iso 16 plays in a row. For 2 straight drives that is all we ran. We scored both drives. We had had an advantage on the right side of our line, and our fullback was better than their Mike. 

If you have something they can't stop, run it again and again and again. As you game plan, look for formations that give you leverage, numbers, and green grass. You may find that team lines up different than you expected to a set, and they don't have a force guy, or they are a hat short. Once you find this, exploit it. 

Game Planning For A More Explosive Offense: GAB Concepts

One of the most important aspects of being explosive on offense is detailed preparation. And one of the best ways to be explosive is to get your best athletes opportunities to touch the football. We have all had games where our best athlete was limited in touches. I learned this lesson early in my career when we had a tremendous athlete who was not getting touches. Kindu Brown was his name, and he was a receiver. We knew he was explosive and could change games, but we weren't getting him enough touches. We had a very good stable of running backs, and Kindu was a receiver for us on offense. We were running the ball 85% of the time, which limited touches for our receivers.

One lesson I learned early on is that players win games, not plays. You can have the best play in the world drawn up, but if the best player isn't touching the ball, the play may not work. Average players can screw up well blocked concepts. Conversely, great athletes can turn a poorly blocked play into a touchdown. When our best players aren't getting touches, we are not going to be as explosive as we can be on offense.

"GREAT PLAYERS WIN GAMES, NOT GREAT PLAYS"

We knew if we could get Kindu 8 touches on offense, that he would find a way to turn 4 of those touches into explosive plays. The problem was, we were not getting him those touches. He was getting more touches on defense through interceptions than he was on offense. As a young offensive coordinator I was doing a bad job of getting him the ball.

After three games we were undefeated, but we hadn't gotten Kindu enough touches. We were missing some big play opportunities. As our schedule got more difficult, we knew we had to get him the ball. The answer we came up with was very simple. We added a section to our offensive call sheet we simply titled, "Get Athletes Ball," or GAB. 

This addition of GAB was the most important part of our call sheet. If we have one great athlete, we have selected plays for this athlete. We typically will have 3 to 4 plays that we feel give this athlete a great chance to score a touchdown. If we have 2 athletes we want to get touches, we will list 3 or 4 plays for that athlete. Below is an example of our get athlete the ball column of my call sheet.

In the box I am going to list the plays we like best for the athlete. For example, if left side inside receiver is our best athlete, we might put bubble as a concept to get him the ball. The second play might be a jet sweep to that player. The third concept might be a reverse where he is going to get the football. Whatever concepts you run that ensure that athlete will touch the ball is what you list. Maybe you have 2 plays that guarantee he will touch the ball. Then you put those two plays.

Typically are GAB concepts are pretty consistent week to week. However, if we see something we can exploit against a particular opponent, we will adjust that call. As the game goes on, I will put a check each time we call these plays. Next to the check I write the result in pencil real small. I want to know who many times we got our best athlete the ball and how many yards we gained. 

The result of adding this section to our call sheet was that our best athletes got more touches, and we scored more points. We were much more explosive. I remember we had a concept we called to Kindu that the defense had taken away by alignment. In my head I knew we should call a timeout. As the ball was snapped I said, "this ain't good." Then Kindu got the football. He made the first two defenders miss, broke a tackle, and turned a 1 yard loss into a 60 yard touchdown. Great athletes make great plays, and players win games, not plays.

I know this seems simple. But in the heat of a game cooler heads often don't prevail. We want to be able to be methodical in our play calling without regard to emotion. By adding a section where you have plays ready to get your athletes the ball, you will get them more touches and you will score more points. 

To help coaches in preparation, I have created an Offensive Game and Practice Planning Resource Packet. This packet consists of 9 downloadable documents that are already formatted, saving you hundred of hours recreating the wheel. These are the documents I used at the high school and college level to prepare our offenses. Included in this packet is our offensive call sheet in excel format. It is a two sided color document formatted for legal sized paper. It is a very detailed call sheet that will help you be a better play caller on gameday! This resource packet is available for instant download! Click here to order yours today: Offensive Game and Practice Planning Documents  These documents will help you SCORE MORE POINTS!

Additionally, I have a defensive packet available for defensive coordinators. These are highly coordinated with the offensive packet, helping your program as a whole to be on the same page. Click here for the Defensive Game and Practice Planning Packet: Defensive Game and Practice Planning Documents

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! 

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