SHORT YARDAGE BASE PLAY

Our second base play is for running inside the 5 yard line & short yardage situations when you need to convert the first down & keep the drive alive. Football is more about making first downs to get you into position to score. Our kids came to believe that no one could stop this play from gaining the yardage necessary to covert the first down or score TDS.

http://footballfaxuals.blogspot.com/search?q=blast+34.

Remember to narrow down the splits in these situations. It compresses the defense. Remember, in general, the better they are than you on the LOS, the narrower your splits have to be.

BASE PLAY

With the beginning of the season as you turn out onto the practice field I want to share with you some of our basic philosophy RE our base plays. You cannot be tired of running the base plays of your offense. These are the plays U fall back on when other things are not working right. These are the plays that Ur team believes that when all else fails, these plays will gain yardage & not be stopped. Our 1st post on offense, therefore, covers our base play, Dive 34:

http://footballfaxuals.blogspot.com/2008/10/equalizer-coaching-clinic-1.html

 I have tried posting this up last week but it did not take. Trying again. What we have here are my additional thoughts from experience first, with the playbook entry following. Note: the Maxcast link no longer in operation.

Influence

With Fall seasons beginning, always remember:

So, listening to ‘The Herd’ this am I heard that Urban Meyer after beating AL with OR up next took the Buckeye Team’s front 7 to Weightwatchers to eat the right foods & get leaner & meaner because the Ducks were up next. They each lost 5 – 11 pounds. They “thought” they were leaner, meaner, faster & that they could match-up with the Ducks, especially in the 2nd half.
Did they, really? Doesn’t matter. They THOUGHT they were & that’s what counts.
For 25 years I got up at 5:00 AM to get ready for school & get the weightroom open so the team could come in and lift before school started. Even at one school got the cook to feed the team a special breakfast. I did this for two reasons: 1. To help those kids get bigger, faster, stronger. But more importantly 2. To build into their psyche that they were doing something that the opponents weren’t. I did it to give us an edge. And it did. And we did it year round. The only ‘vacation’ we took was over Christmas & New Years. The rest of the time we were in the weightroom working out. The perception became [in 4 different schools] if you were in town, you needed to be in the weightroom. If you weren’t, your spot on the team would go to someone who was and you wound up on the bench. Every school day. Every vacation day. Every snow day. You needed to be in the weightroom.

Same ‘Perception’ for the Buckeyes. The Bucks were not in class during that time either so they could spend more time at the facility that the Ducks. The Buckeyes were going to weight watchers, making an unheard of sacrifice to get better prepared. The Ducks weren’t. As we found out, some of them were smoking dope getting ready for the game. That’s a cheap shot but you get the picture: Oregon says it doesn’t matter that they lost their most productive receiver because the ‘system’ is greater than the players in it. OSU gains the perception that they can not only match up to the Duck system, they can surmount it. They could even turn the ball over 4 times & still win by 22 points. That’s conviction.

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The other thing I heard on The Herd in the past couple days is that the spread scheme that OR runs has it's roots in the fact that it can take players of lesser abilities and get them on an even playing field. Well . . . that's the same thing that the EQualizer does with even players of lesser skills. Think about it. In college you can go out an recruit players that 'fit' into your system. Can't do that in the average high school in America which BTW has an enrollment less than 750 half of whom are girls. That means in your average high school there are half a dozen boys that halve 3 star or better talent. And then they might now even go out for football. Perhaps they see themselves as a baseball player, basketball player, soccer player, etc. What do you have left: Average kids. IN the spread offense you have to have someone to throw the ball & someone who can catch the ball. That's not always going to be the case.

At one school I had a QB who I would tell “put the ball on the upfield shoulder of the Rer which he would do & we would watch it bounce off the Rer’s shoulder pads and into the waiting arms of a defender. Not only do you have to have a thrower – you have to have a catcher. There were years we had kids who could catch the ball but no one who could chuck it to them.

And then they are in the shotgun, short punt, or pistol formation. Now you have to find a player who can consistently snap the ball [which the QB has to catch] & be a good blocker for the blitzers up the gut or A gaps. How many times have you seen not only college teams, but also the pros, get inside the 5 yard line & either not be able to score or have a bad snap over the QB’s head negate a scoring opportunity, especially at a crucial part of the game.

I have always contended that OR does not have a plan B for when they get stuffed on the LOS. They will not go double tightend, fullback & pound the ball over the goal line. It happened to them on 4^th down on the 1 yard line. They got stuffed.

For these reason & more is why I created the Equalizer. It takes average kids & puts them into position to be successful against teams of greater talent. You see, talent has a way of evening out. You take your good players 7 pit them against their good players in order to cancel them out. Your three against their three. Then we get to play against the other 8-12 kids. I have always believed that we can get into the weightroom and condition to make our 8-12 play better than your 8-12 in a simple system, both offensively & defensively.

Simple, not necessarily easy but simple.

So....what can we take away from this weeks FSU game?
1. FSU has a stable full of talent.
2. Jim Bo out coached Bobby P. I only got to see most of the last QTR. But once again, here's the deal. The shotgun formation gives one 'instant' pass protection & a QB can pass the ball faster than a defender can react - even if the receiver is right next to the defender. L'ville tried to play zone defense which leaves a receiver 'open' when the QB throws the ball into the seams. R'er catches the ball & gets tackled OR runs right up the seam for a huge gain or score.
3. In a game like this you cannot take your foot off the pedal like L'Ville did when they got the ball inside their 20 on a punt with the lead with @ 6 minutes left to go. They put their game plan on a shelf (remember the very first play of the game?) & went into the tank.
4. Defensively, you have to keep the QB in the pocket (which was easier to do in the 4th because Winston was hobbling around on a bum leg). There must be a controlled rush-DE's have to rush from the outside in keeping the QB in the pocket & the DTs must maintain their lanes. AND defenders have to disrupt the R'ers during the first 5 yards of their route. If not, you will not be able to react quick enough to stop them passing. Man Under-Zone Deep. If you do that, you give yourself this chance: a QB under pressure must throw the ball over an under defended & under an over defender (or the sidelines). Defenders simply cannot just sit back, in a zone & stare at the QB, read where the pas is going & try to rally to the ball. THE DEFENSE MUST "BE THERE WHEN THE BALL GETS THERE" go up and get the ball at it's highest point. Afterall, if the R'er has practiced to run down the field & catch the ball, why can't the defense practice to BE THERE WHEN THE BALL GETS THERE? Coach Holtz always said pass defense is really very easy. There is one guy who catches the ball and normally 7 defenders (plus the two sidelines & the endline of the End Zone). Add it up. That's 10 defenders vs one R'er. What's so hard about that? 

5. L'Ville painfully demonstrated the need for a "Jumbo' package complete with a fullback to lead the ball carrier into the end zone from 2-3 yards out. These one back offensive guys who think they can snap the ball back to outside of the yard line, had the ball off deep, have the playside try to reach block & pull some from the offside is just not going to work. The reach block is the most difficult block to maintain; I learned in JHS that you just DO NOT pull linemen in goal line or short yardage defense; handling the ball off deep means that the back is not going to be in the hole when the block is being made. The block is going to break down. Or a defender is going to beat the back to the hole because of the lane the pulling guard has opened to the defense who fills it with an inside rusher who blows up the play. Again, Jim Bo's staff out coaches L'Ville's.

That's my story & I'm sticking to it.

It all starts with a Dream:
Dreams

“If you can dream it; you can do it. Remember, this whole thing was started by a mouse.” 

Walt Disney

Imagine that you are about to be inducted into a Sports Hall of Fame.
This could be the Hall of Fame at your school, in your state, for a national association, or the World Hall of fame. Write down what you would like to people you would want to be delivering your induction speech. What part of competitor? What stories would they use to illustrate the strengths of your game? Would they talk about your tenacity, your accuracy, your work ethic? How would they describe your composure, your attitude, your guts? Think of as many details as possible that would capture you as an athlete.
Without being specifically asked, you have described your dreams. This a vengeance.
Just as Ben Hogan was responsible for making (and remaking) himself into one of the greatest golfers of all time, you too are responsible for whatever greatness you hope to accomplish in your sports. His dream was to be one of the best ever in the sport he loved. Your dream can be whatever you would like it to be. It can literally be anything you desire. If does not have to be approved by others. It is all yours and no matter how worthwhile others perceive it to be does not mater. In fact, if some people question your dream, it is probably very worthwhile. And if everyone thinks it is a realistic. Remember, you only get one shot at living your dreams.

A true dream, once you have envisioned it and imagined it, does not go away. You don’t have to remind yourself every day what your dream is. A true dream sticks in your mind like a song that you can’t quit singing. It is there, over and over, reminding you constantly of where you want to go.
Although a dream is always present, always there for you to ponder the possibilities, this does not mean your dream is “set.” Dreams are never set. They may have a dominant theme for many years, but they are always undergoing evaluation and adjustment as necessary. Again, if your dream doesn’t grow some as you make progress toward achieving it, you may need to reevaluate it.
A dream is like fuel, it provides energy - energy for you to withstand the rough times and pitfalls which are inevitable in any long-term pursuit. A dream will keep your motor running when you feel like you have no choice but to pull over and stop. However, also like fuel, a dream can do nothing by itself. You must make the dream, the fuel, come to life. You must drive the car powered by the fuel for it (dream) to become a reality.
Hopefully by now, you realize I am talking about chasing your dreams. Your grandest visions of all the things you love to have happen to yourself. The dreams you dreamed about when you were a kid. Making the shot to win the NBA Championship or the putt to win the Masters. I am not talking about goals that you Hope to check off a list. They are very clear in your mind, but they are so awesome they do not have limits or boundaries which would allow them to be checked off.
It is nearly impossible not to have dreams. As a human, one of the greatest gifts you have is your ability to imagine. You may feel like you don’t have any dreams, but you do. You just may be afraid to let yourself chase them. Don’t be afraid. What is the worst that can happen? You don’t achieve your dream? Wouldn’t it be better to have tried and “failed” than to never have tried at all?
You don’t have to quit your job or change your entire life to pursue your dreams. It is not always possible to make gigantic steps along this journey; I know that. It is possible, however, to plan for the future of your dreams. It may be just small steps that you can take which use only minutes or hours a day. Believe me there is no hard and fast rule about how much time or effort is required to achieve your dreams. Just follow your gut. You will know. If you are finding ways to squeeze out any minutes you possible can to chase your dreams, you are doing all you can. If you are making excuses that you don’t have time to chase your dreams, you don’t have a dream. Instead, you have a wish. But if you do have a dream, an awesome, all-you-can-think-about dream, go get it. If you don’t chase it, you’ll never know if you could have caught it.