Author Archives: Troy
Jamboree
Great Job, Team!
We made great improvement between last Tuesday and the Jamboree. We were clearly the most prepared, most effective 2nd grade team on the field Sunday. Our hard work is starting to pay off. Keep it up.
My observations:
1) Our defense was unscored on. Excellent job! I believe we held or opponents to a combined negative yardage total. Now that’s defense.
2) Our offense improved to about 50% efficiency (meaning half our plays were executed for positive yardage). This is an improvement from about 33% last Tuesday. I expect us to be at 80% by game 1 and 90% by mid season.
3) We made a slew of big gains on offense. We scored 6 times (I think). Great blocking Russ, David, Calvin, Bryce, Jimmy, Tre and Cole! Way to go. It’s because of you that we can move the ball.
For the next three practices we have the following goals:
1) Install an onside kickoff and kick return team
2) Work on OL cut and crab blocks
3) 300 more snaps at center (100 per day)
4) Backup reps for HB, QB, FB, WB and Receiver
Great job. Let’s keep getting better and better.
Coach
2012: First Scrimmage
Today, we took on the 3rd grade team for about an hour of full contact. We held our own, scored twice, and only allowed them to score on a broken play.
Here’s how I evaluated things:
1) Tackling: There were some terrific fills by our LBs and some examples of good tackling. We’re still a little tentative at wrapping up and driving through the runner.
2) Blocking: Not bad. We were firing out and slowing pursuit. FB blocking was good.
3) Pursuit: A+ We were swarming and aggressive on defense and the gang tackling was terrific.
4) Technical: Snapping needs 500 more reps. We had quite a few high snaps but this is something we can correct with reps.
All in all, was very pleased with how we responded to a much larger 3rd grade team. Great job, Team
2012 Practice Schedule
Our team practices (not camp) will start Tuesday, August 7.
For the week of Aug 6:
Tues 5:30 at Buchanan Park
Wed 5:30 at Buchanan Park
Thu 5:30 at Conifer High School
Fri 5:30 at Conifer High School
For the week of Aug 13:
Tues 5:30 at Buchanan Park
Wed 5:30 at Buchanan Park
Thu 5:30 at Conifer High School
Fri 5:30 at Conifer High School
For the week of Aug 20 and the rest of the season:
Tues 5:30 at Buchanan Park
Wed no practice
Thu 5:30 at Conifer High School
Fri 5:30 at Conifer High School
2012 Offensive Playbook
Our offensive playbook is out. There will not be a defensive playbook as we will be running a Gap-Air-Mirror with only one alignment.
Tim Tebow and the Return of the Single Wing
NFL teams have been dabbling in the Single Wing with what they call the “Wildcat” offense. But none has implemented a complete offense… only 3 or 4 plays. Watching Tebow terrorize the Raiders with his running threat, then seeing McGahee shred silver and black gets me excited about the possibilities.
Bill Walsh had this to say about the Single Wing:
Howard Cosell wrote, in his 1991 book What’s Wrong With Sports, “One thing I have found very interesting in my conversation with (Bill) Walsh is that he regretted he never tried the single-wing formation with the 49ers. He felt that Steve Young could have run the formation to perfection, and that the league’s defenses would have had a difficult time stopping the old formation.”
And Vince Lombardi said this:
“What would happen if someone came out with the single-wing offense?” he asked. “It would embarrass the hell out of us.”
Enjoy the deception and power of this wonderful, forgotten offense:
Teddy Roosevelt Would Have Played Youth Football
…If youth football was around, then…
Are you aware that Teddy Roosevelt, one of the greatest men to have lived, was quite the sickly, asthmatic child growing up? As explained in “Lessons in Manliness from Theodore Roosevelt,” his father was aware of Teddy’s conditions but was determined to not let his son languish in these frailties. He pulled his boy aside and told him, “Theodore you have the mind but you have not the body, and without the help of the body the mind cannot go as far as it should. I am giving you the tools, but it is up to you to make your body.”
His father’s advice became a blueprint for Teddy’s life – he went on to live every day with conviction and vigor, constantly pushing his body and mind to the limit. As he pushed his body further, he felt more comfortable pushing his mind further as well. Think about it, after fighting lions and climbing mountains, you think running for President scared him?
Defense: Keep It Simple and Aggressive
Should we call this the “KISA” principle? Hmmm.
A great link on the Gap 8.
This defense is fundamentally sound meaning it assigns responsibility for all gaps. It covers all receivers. It relies on man-to-man (cover 0) coverage which is much easier to teach than zone. It is designed to control the sweep. And it is simple to install, understand, and troubleshoot. The weakness is it’s susceptible to the off tackle play. And it requires disciplined, tough, reliable DEs.
The hallmark of gap 8, 10-1, and 7-diamond defenses is their assignment of a single gap responsibility per player. A 4-4, 4-3, 5-3, 5-2, et al, each require a defensive lineman to cover more than one gap (or dog LBs every single play). This is a lot to ask of a youth football defender. In my experience, very few can actually do it. I think non-Gap 8 defenses succeed in youth football because youth offensive lines fail or youth offenses kill their own drives with penalties, incompletions, or turnovers. I don’t want to rely on the other team’s failure in order to be successful. I prefer my defensive players to just aggressively shoot their gap, get penetration, and blow the play up rather than worry about reading the blocking pressure at the line of scrimmage.
So we’ll be running a Gap 8. The problem I’ve encountered running the Gap 8, straight up, is offenses adjust to it as OLs quickly familiarize themselves with WHO they need to block as it’s the same person every play. So we are probably going to add a couple of wrinkles to create the illusion of complexity in the minds of our opponent. Hopefully we don’t end up confusing ourselves. The defense will “look” like a 5-3 alignment but 1 LB will dog on every play to fill the “8th” gap. Hopefully, a habitual line slant and changing LB blitz will keep them guessing.
A Contrarian Approach to Offense
The Idea of Contrarian Offenses:
Youth football coach John T. Reed often talks about using an offense that your opponent is not accustomed to seeing. The idea is that if you run a Power I or a Pro Set, you are playing in to the opponent’s hands as they probably run these types of systems as well and scrimmage against them every day at practice.
I know that a few of the mountain teams run something resembling a “spread” as well. I think this is a terrific offense but it is becoming cliche as so many high schools and youth teams attempt to run it as well.
I’ve used variations of the single and double wing for 8 years now. But those, too, are becoming more common. I saw a 4th grade game this season where one team ran an unbalanced line single wing against a mountain team. I didn’t know whether to be proud that as I was once ahead of the curve or be upset because now I am “passe” again. I did not see any other coaches running single wing in JMFA 4 years ago.
Here’s some great videos of versions of the single wing in action…
Single Wing Football (An awesomely executed, tight-formation, low-profile, hide-the-ball version. Looks like a Dave Cisar single wing)
More Single Wing Football (One split end, multiple “snap-to” backs, innovative use of multiple formations)
So now that the single wing has become somewhat “orthodox” it is time to evolve once again. I’ve given consideration to the “Lonesome Polecat” (developed by Tiger Ellison and the precurser of the run and shoot), and the “A-11” (which is so good it’s illegal in many states) but have chosen to build around the “spread jet” which is NOT a “spread” offense, per se, but uses a spread formation with single wing blocking. It can also be tweaked to incorporate A-11-esque shifts into unbalanced formation which will cause a defense to “cover” an ineligible lineman with a linebacker thus wasting a defender. We’ll roll that nuance out in 5th and 6th grade.
Sidesaddle Single Wing Football 