Chapter 10: Planning for a Game

Planning for any phase of football is important, but planning for a particular game is vitally important. I tell my players our staff will study, prepare and plan one hour for every minute the players are on the practice field. Then we actually spend this much time in our practice and game preparation. The typical fan has little conception of the amount of time we spend planning for a single football game.

OUT-OF-SEASON PLANNING

Our planning commences in early summer when I assign each assistant coach to a particular game opponent for the coming season. If we do not have as many coaches as we have football games, several assistants will have to double up and prepare for two opponents.

Each coach will secure as many movies as possible on his particular opponent and break-down the films. He also familiarizes himself with the returning personnel, and studies each player’s characteristics, strengths and weaknesses. The coach will observe the returning quarterback’s movements in particular, looking for tip-offs. Does he look at his receiver all the way downfield? Does he have a favorite pass route? Does he have a favorite receiver? Does he favor action or drop back passes? Does he like to operate to his left or right? Such information, along with additional scouting information, helps us get a “book” on the quarterback.

It is important to know the opposition’s strongest and weakest positions on offense and defense. The coach looks at the films, and attempts to get as much reliable and valid information as possible from them. Then when the coach (scout) sees his opposition in the fall he will do a better job of scouting them because he is familiar with the offense, defense, and the returning personnel.

IN-SEASON PLANNING

During the season we like to see an opponent play at least three times. We feel we can do a better job of planning after we have a fairly clear understanding of what our opponents are likely to do. We want to have a fairly definite idea of what our opposition will do offensively in the following situations:

1. First down and 10 yards to go.

2. Second down and long yardage.

3. Second down and short yardage.

4. Third down and long yardage.

5. Third down and short yardage.

6. Fourth down and short yardage.

7. Unusual and special situations.

Conversely, we want to find out what our opposition will do defensively versus the above situations.

In order to give you a run-down of our procedures, let’s consider a typical week preceding Saturday’s game.

_Sunday’s Schedule_

The coaching staff will meet together early Sunday morning and go over the film of Saturday’s game. While the assistant coaches are studying and grading the film, I will meet with the assistant coach who scouted the team we will be playing this coming Saturday. In addition to receiving a thorough scouting report from him, I want his recommendations offensively and defensively of what we should do against the opponent. The scout will then complete his report as he will present it to the squad members on Monday night.

In the meantime the other assistant coaches have completed their grading of the film, and then we discuss personnel. As the result of game performance, we commence to make plans as to the personnel we will be using in the upcoming game.

_Monday’s Schedule_

On Monday morning the scout will give his report to our entire staff. He then answers questions relating to the opponent we will be playing on Saturday. After we have fully discussed the opposition from every aspect, our defensive coaches will have a separate meeting and make plans to set up the defenses which they would like to use. The offensive coaches have a similar meeting, and map out their strategy versus all of the various defenses the opposition has used in various situations. We recognize the fact that some plays are good only against certain defenses and not all plays are successful against all defenses. Therefore, we try to limit our offense to the best possible plays against our opposition’s anticipated defenses. Of course, we must have a valid, reliable, comprehensive scouting report in order to make our plans. We also understand and recognize the fact that some teams will change practically their entire offensive system from game to game. However, this gives such teams only one week to perfect a new “favorite” series, and this is almost an impossible feat.

All of our coaches will meet together again around 10:30 A.M., with the defensive coaches making their recommendations for Saturday’s opponent. The strategy is discussed at length before a decision is reached. Let me digress for just a second to say that once we have made our decisions, we will stick with them tenaciously for fear of confusing our players by changing defenses later in the week.

The procedure is repeated again, this time with the offensive coaches. All coaches, regardless of position or whether they specialize in offense or defense, will enter the discussion. We have found following such a procedure helps us do a better job of coaching, and some of our best suggestions relating to offense have come from our defensive coaches, and vice versa, defensive suggestions have come from the offensive coaches. We are always open to suggestions!

After we have made our plans, we can then make out our work schedule for Monday afternoon. Although I usually make out the remainder of the schedule for the week each night after practice, you can see the necessity of waiting until Monday in order to make out the day’s work schedule.

After lunch we will have a short squad meeting. First, we go over last Saturday’s game discussing both the good and bad points. Then we will inform the squad of our plans for this coming Saturday’s game, and change assignments, make adjustments, etc., at this time.

The boys who do not have late afternoon classes meet at 3:30 P.M., and we go over last week’s game movie. Each coach will sit with the players whom he has graded and discuss their performance in the film. If time permits, we like to have the ends and backs meet in one group and the interior linemen in another group for separate viewings of the film. We feel such a practice is highly desirable and eliminates the confusion that generally occurs when all of the players view the game film at the same time.

On Monday and Friday our regular practice commences at 5:30 P.M., since our boys take their laboratory classes on these two days. It is impossible to set up a practice schedule if key personnel are absent due to late labs every day of the week.

The boys who played in Saturday’s game will be out in sweat clothes for approximately 45-50 minutes. They will stretch and loosen up, before we spend most of the time learning and rehearsing the defenses they will be using for this coming Saturday’s opponent. Our procedure is to have the “red shirts” come out of the huddle and line up in the different offensive formations we expect to face, and our defense will adjust accordingly. For the last 15 minutes of the session a scrub team will run the opposition’s favorite plays about half speed so the regulars will have an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the offense. Then the boys in sweat clothes take several short sprints and we send them to the showers.

The boys who did not play in last Saturday’s game have a good workout emphasizing and practicing fundamentals. At times we terminate Monday’s practice session with a short scrimmage against the freshman squad.

After a late dinner on Monday night, we have another squad meeting where the scout will give a complete oral report to the players on our upcoming opponent. He will discuss personnel, favorite plays, passes, defenses, kicking game, and any additional pertinent information relating to the opposition. He then hands out a comprehensive typed scout report to the squad members. Frankly, I do not believe a boy can do an intelligent job of playing without studying his scouting report.

_Tuesday’s Schedule_

We will have a staff meeting early on Tuesday morning in order to set up the practice schedule for the afternoon. A typical Tuesday practice session will last approximately one hour and 35 minutes, plus the last period which does not have a specific time limit for the reasons I explained previously.

Our schedule is generally set up so that the first five minutes the linemen will be firing out and hitting the big sled or seven dummies, and the backs will be having a fumble drill or working on stance and starts. Our exercises and agility drills precede this drill for the linemen and backs.

The second period will usually be 20 minutes in duration, which will vary from week to week according to our needs. A typical period will have our first team secondary working on pass defense against a scrub team who will be throwing the opponent’s passes. At the same time, in another area we will have our first and second team guards and tackles working on defensive techniques. Our backs will be divided into two groups. One group will work on our polish drill, and the other on the secondary drill. Our third and fourth lines will be working as teams on blocking.

At the termination of the previously mentioned 20 minute period, we exchange the backs and linemen, and the coaches repeat the drills again with their new groups.

Our next period will be working on individual techniques by positions for approximately 15 minutes’ duration. During this time our coaches generally work on weaknesses or correct errors which they observed in last Saturday’s game film. Or they will work by positions on recommendations which were made at Monday’s coaches’ meeting.

Our team drills and “team learning” are next on Tuesday’s practice schedule. The first and third teams will work on our offense for Saturday’s game. The first team will run about three plays to one compared to the third team. During this time the second team will work on defense against the scrub team, which will be running the opposition’s plays and passes. At the termination of 20-25 minutes the first and second teams will change around, with the first team working on defense, and the second and third teams working on offense. This period continues for 20-25 minutes.

The first and second teams will work on the kicking game next. As I stated previously, we use our kicking game as a conditioner and at the same time doing something functional with respect to perfecting our protection and coverage. When they do it properly, normally this phase of the practice schedule lasts 10-12 minutes. If not executed to our satisfaction, the period is longer in duration. While the first two units are working on their kicking game, the third team will usually be working on their defensive play. After completing their 20 minutes’ defensive drill, they must have their kicking game practice.

After we have set up Tuesday afternoon’s schedule we will amend offensive and defensive plans if necessary. We generally spend the remainder of Tuesday morning evaluating player personnel.

After lunch we will have a short squad meeting for about 15-20 minutes if we have amended our offensive or defensive plans or if we are going to make any changes of any nature involving the offense or defense.

Some time after lunch and before our specialists take the field at 3:10, with our regular scheduled practice commencing at 3:30 P.M., our defensive coach will meet with our defensive signal callers and our offensive coach will meet with our quarterbacks, and go over defensive and offensive plans and strategy, respectively.

After practice we will have a brief staff meeting again and we will review our entire practice schedule. At this time I want my assistant coaches to make recommendations for the next day as I want to work on the schedule at night for the following day. I discussed our procedures in