PHILOSOPHY FOR THE PROGRAM



Football is a game of blocking and tackling. It is a simple game of execution and teamwork. It is a simple game that teaches young men so many important life experiences that will help build the future citizens and leaders of our society.

Football is an important institution on this campus. Players right or wrong are held to a higher standard than all other student-athletes. As a head coach I welcome this higher standard because I believe that it is warranted. No other sport requires as much in the way of time commitment, the physical toil on the body, or the mental and physical preparation to play. These players must be intelligent and committed student-athletes.

This program will demand excellence in all aspects of the student-athletes’ lives: Academics, citizenship, sportsmanship, and performance.

• All student-athletes will be required to have a minimum of a 2.0 grade point average with no D’s or F’s. Any student receiving a D or F will be suspended from games until his classroom achievement is brought up to a C. Although average performance is not our goal it will be tolerated during the season.

• All student-athletes will receive at least an S in citizenship. Any student receiving a U in citizenship will be suspended from games until his behavior is remedied. This will include a student – coach – teacher conference. This program will provide community service to project our positive image as an organization through out the community.

• Sportsmanship will be a source of constant pride by our student body. Profanity, vulgarity, off-color or derogatory statements will not be tolerated. Players engaging in such activity will be removed from the field and reprimanded in a manner as to prevent future inappropriate expressions.

• Finally, performance, the most public expression of my job. High school football games are followed by tens of thousands of county residents. The results are reported the next day in the newspapers and on local cable television stations. The schools are ranked on performance and a certain amount of notoriety goes along with the schools that are successful. My job is to prepare my team to play their opponent to the best of their ability, execute the game plan and to play with class. To this end I am extremely confident that I will produce student-athletes that will enjoy the game of football and mature into solid American citizens that we will be proud to say are our alumni.

The football program of this school will be a proud example of the high standards that the young men of our community will achieve through positive, disciplined leadership in a healthy academic and athletic environment.

COACHING PHILOSOPHY

Young men are excitable, impressionable, active people. They need structure, guidance, and security. As a head football coach I must be all things to these players; teacher, disciplinarian, baby sitter, parent, role model, councilor, strategic expert, and friend. There is no harder task than to demand excellence, expect perfection, require everything, and still treat each young man individually and with compassion.

As a coach I must give everything to my young men. Inspire them with my work ethic and passion. Teach them through repetition and drill. Guide their experiences so that they develop into mature adults.

I must use every available tool to prepare my players for the demands of not just the game but the preparations for the game. Practice is the time for them to play with game like tempo. Walk thorough prepares the team for practice. Classroom meetings prepare them for the walk through. The use of films and scouting reports gives reality to the opponent and the logic behind the game plan.

Coaching is a progression and in this process we must prepare our athletes for their role in the game. Their performance is a direct result of our ability to focus their preparation. The outcome of the game is based on their performance. The end result is my ability to prepare my team. Coaching is teaching, I am always a teacher first!

OFFENSIVE PHILOSOPHY

Offensive football is the most exciting part of football. The role of the offense is five fold, like the fingers of a hand, individually they produce little affect, but clench together strong as a fist they will produce a knock out punch to the opponents defense. The goal of the offense is to maintain possession of the ball, get first downs, use the clock to our advantage, control the line of scrimmage, and most importantly, score points.

The offense in this program is a focused, powerful, and an attacking machine to opponents’ defenses. We place a lot of pride in the philosophy of discipline on the ball, attacking at the point of attack. We are mentally sharp football players understand down and distance and clock management.

We must develop our offensive scheme around the players we have available. However, our priority is to develop a running game. The ground game establishes the Line of Scrimmage. Establishing control of the Line of Scrimmage allows you to move the ball, get first downs, and control the clock. The run game must be solid to provide misdirection, play action, and bootlegs. Once the run game is established we can open up with the pass. The pass is a quick strike, attacking weapon to move the ball up field, gaining ground in short periods of time.

We will strive to establish a balanced 50 / 50pass attack, making it hard for defense to find tendencies. We will also be a multiple offense, running solid schemed plays right and left, strong and weak, to the field and boundary, out of multiple formations with various motions and shifts. Our goals on offense are simply stated yet require a tremendous commitment of personal discipline.

• Control the Line of Scrimmage- Getting off on the ball. Attacking the weakness of the defense. Creating a surge to gain three, four or five yards gives momentum and confidence to the offense and demoralizes the defense. We must control the Line of Scrimmage every play.

• Maintain possession- The offense must not turn the ball over at any time during the game. By putting first downs together in a drive we use the clock to our advantage as well as move towards our goal of scoring points. First downs also allow our defense to be fresh for their next series to get e three and out and get us the ball back.

• Clock management- Understanding the clock is important for both players and coaches. The four-minute offense and the two-minute offense are keys to maintain a lead and stealing a victory in the closing seconds of a game. All players need to understand about staying in bounds or getting out of bounds. Also delays of the game can take us out of field position.

• Score points- After four days of practice, the walk through and the pre-game you will understand how to execute your role for this opponent. You must execute; there is excuse. You have to do a job to make your team successful, do it, and take pride in doing it the best you can. If you execute your job first, big plays will happen for you. If the offense executes its responsibilities big plays will happen for the offense. Points are the measure of wins and looses. We must score on offense!


We work too hard all week to be prepared to be successful on Friday nights. No other school related event draws as many people from both our school and the community as our football games do. No test you ever took or job you will ever do will be as criticized, ridiculed, or praised as the job you do on Friday nights. No other school related event draws as many people from both our school and community as do our Football games. No test you ever took or job you will ever do will be as criticized, ridiculed, or praised as the job you do n Friday nights. Simple execution of plays whether its blocking at the point of attack, finding the seam or window, playing catch, or making adjustments on the field, our offensive philosophy is to attack the weaknesses of the defense, move the ball down the field, control the clock, and score points. OFFENSE WINS FOOTBALL GAMES!


DEFENSIVE PHILOSOPHY

Defensive football is a unique aspect of organized sport. This is the only game where eleven different players can enter the game and have a specific purpose of preventing the opponent from scoring points. No other sport puts this pressure on a particular unit, and no other sport has the mentality associated with defense.

The defense in this program is an aggressive, attacking defense. We place a lot of pride in the philosophy of swarming to the football and making gang tackles. We are aggressive football players who love to play physical, full speed football.

The absolute most important thing for the defense to able to do is tackle. We tackle every day in practice and we practice tackling in different situations. Tackling is a priority of defensive practice.

There are six keys to preparing to play great defensive football. Alignment, assignment, key, technique, execution, and effort are the six golden absolutes to playing solid defense.

• Alignment - We must be able to align properly at all times immediately. When the offense breaks the huddle we must know the formation, running strength (tight call), the passing strength (strength call), force responsibilities, and the coverage of judgments. If we cannot align properly, we are already beaten.

• Assignment - We must know our assignment, this is also called a responsibility. Do we have a gap to control, a man to cover, a zone of responsibility, or blitz to run. What does each person have to do on each play to make our defense solid on that play?

• Key - The offense will not tell us what play they are going to run at the snap of the ball. We must read our key to be in proper spot to stop their play. First step by the offense line, release by the tight end and receivers, key steps by the running backs, the eyes of the quarterback, the down and distance, the field position, the hash marks, the score, and the time left on the clock are all keys that we must be aware of each snap.

• Technique - If the opponent is bigger, stronger, faster, smarter, or tougher than you, you can quit, or you can rely on your coaching to allow you to use the proper technique and give you and your teammates an opportunity to be successful. We spend more time working on technique than any other program in the country. Trust your coach to prepare you to be successful for the opponent you will face. We want you to succeed, and we will give you the coaching to use the technique to be successful.

• Execution - After four days of practice, the walk through and the pre-game you will understand how to execute your role for this opponent. You must execute, there is no excuse. You have been prepared to do a job to make your team successful, do it, and take pride in doing it the best you can. If you execute your job first, big plays will happen for you. If the defense executes its responsibilities big plays will happen for the defense.

• Effort - This is the one thing that the coaches cannot control. Your effort is up to you! We know that there is not a man on this unit, let alone in this program, that is playing football to be bad. During the game in front of God, your girlfriend, and your grandparents you will try your best and we will never question your effort, you will! Are you giving your best for yourself and your teammates are they giving their best for you?

We work too hard all week to be prepared to be successful on Friday nights. No other school related event draws as many people from both our school and the community as our Football games do. No test you ever took or job you will ever do will be as criticized, ridiculed, or praised as the job you do on Friday nights. You are not alone but the defense is the most important ingredient in a successful football season. A solid defense will keep any game respectable. There are four ways to score on Offense but six ways (safety, blocked punt, blocked field goal, interception, fumble, recovery, punt return) to score on defense. The Offense may help us to Win Games; but DEFENSE WINS CHAMPIONSHIPS!


SPECIAL TEAMS PHILOSOPHY

The Special Teams are at least 20% and at times as much as 40% of the football game. Therefore at least 20% and as much as 40% of our preparation must be in the Special Teams part of the game. The Special Teams always involve a change of possession. Field position and clock management also come into play and these areas affect the entire team. A sense of urgency must accompany all Special Team activities.

• Punt - Some would argue that the punt is the most important play in football. It is the play that gives up possession to the opponent with out scoring. This team must give the opponent poor field position while protecting the kick to win the field position battle.

• Kick Off - This is the team that establishes the field position of the drive. You are giving possession to the opponent and you want to give them a long field to score. Big plays on Kick Offs can destroy a team’s momentum.

• Punt Pressure - This is the defense’s responsibility. The offense cannot score if the Punt Pressure team does not secure possession of the ball. This team must either set up for a return to give good field position to the offense, block the punt to create momentum, most importantly prevent a fake. We must get the ball in the hands of the offense to score.

• Kick Off Return - This is an opportunity! The opponent is giving us the ball and we have time to set up a return and score. If we score this will give us both great momentum and sets the tone for the game.

• PAT Field Goal - These are opportunities to score. We must be 100% on PAT’s and get 3 points at least every time we are in the red zone.

• PAT Field Goal Block - This can be the difference in the game. Blocking a Field Goal or a PAT gives the team confidence and many games are won or lost with 3 points or less.

We work too hard all week to be prepared to be successful on Friday nights. No other school related event draws as many people from both our school and the community as our Football games do. No test you ever took or job you will ever do will be as criticized, ridiculed, or praised as the job you do on Friday nights. All Special Teams involve either blocking or tackling or both. Because of the sudden change aspect of Special Teams the best personnel should be used, i.e., blockers, tacklers, runners, receivers. Great Special Teams are by-products of great coaching. All coaches will be responsible for certain aspects of each Special Team. The Special Teams determine the field position, and therefore determine the hidden yardage.