Chapter 3: Wednesday’s Schedule

The procedure is the same as previously—staff meeting and set up the afternoon’s practice schedule, which will be about one hour and 30 minutes, excluding the last drill which is not timed.

After setting up the exercises and the agility drills, we will have our linemen firing out, the same as on Tuesday, and the backs will be polishing plays.

The next 25 minute period will be first team on defense against the scrub team, and they will practice defense over the field. The scrub team will run the opposition’s plays and tendencies, and the defense is full speed with the exception of tackling the ball carrier. During this time, on another field our second and third teams will be running our offense versus the opposition’s defenses.

During the next period the first and second teams will exchange and repeat the same drills listed above.

The next period will usually be 20 minutes’ duration with the third team working on defense over the field, and the first and second teams working on special situations such as quick kicks, passes, etc.

The next period will be devoted to our kicking game. We also usually have a few goal line drives on Wednesday.

Our Wednesday’s practice schedule will vary more than the other days because we spend about 20 minutes on group drills and about six minutes full speed on goal line defense, and phases of this nature.

After Wednesday’s schedule is completed and out of the way, the staff will usually go to the projection room and view films of this week’s opponent.

After lunch we will again have a short meeting and inform the squad of any changes we have made or plan on making. We will also discuss the previous day’s practice.

The defensive signal callers and the quarterbacks will meet separately with their respective coaches for about 20 minutes, which is our usual procedure daily during the football season.

After Wednesday evening’s dinner we have a squad meeting and go over the film of the opponent we will be playing on Saturday.

_Thursday’s Schedule_

Thursday morning we will again have an early staff meeting and we set up the afternoon practice schedule first.

After five minutes of firing out for the linemen as units, and the backs working on stance and starts or a quick fumble drill, we will have three 25 minute periods where we will stress learning and perfection more than body contact.

We will have three different groups working at the same time. The first unit will be working on offense versus the opposition’s defenses, over the field. The second unit will be working on their defenses versus the opposition’s offense, being run by the scrubs over the field. The purpose of this is to check our defensive signal caller to see that he is calling the correct defense in various sections of the field. In a third area we will have the third team working on all phases of the kicking game, such as quick kicks, spread punt, punt returns, on-side kick, etc.

At the termination of the 25 minute period, the teams will change. The first unit will go to the defensive drill; the second unit to the kicking drill; and the third unit will go to offense.

When the second 25 minute period has terminated, we will change for the third period. Following such a procedure gives each unit 25 minutes of offense, of defense, and on the kicking game. Then we send the players to the showers because we do not want them to leave their game on the practice field and be tired on Saturday.

After Thursday’s schedule is set, the staff will spend the remainder of the morning discussing the progress which has been made to date in preparation for our forthcoming opponent. We also discuss personnel at this time.

After lunch we will have a very short meeting, merely taking time to discuss or review our defensive game plans. Our defensive signal callers and quarterbacks will meet as usual, as I mentioned previously. Our regular practice session will commence at 3:30 P.M.

The coaches meet after practice, as is our usual procedure. We do not meet with the squad on Thursday evening after dinner, however.

_Friday’s Schedule_

Since Friday’s practice schedule will not be longer than 30 minutes’ duration, we do not have to spend much time in setting it up. We will work as a group and have a short, snappy workout in sweat clothes, going over all of the situations that are likely to occur during the game. After we rehearse kick-offs, returns, on-side kicks, and a couple of goal line drives, we send the boys in. As I stated previously, due to Friday afternoon labs, our practice session will commence at 5:30 P.M.

A typical Friday evening dinner menu, if we are playing on Saturday afternoon, would be as follows:

Tomato soup
Fruit cocktail cup
14 ounce choice sirloin strip, medium well done
One-half baked potato mashed, topped with American cheese
Green beans
Assorted bread (but no hard French bread)
One pint of milk or iced tea
Vanilla ice cream, one dip.

After dinner we will go to a movie as a group or we go some place where we will all be together. At 10 P.M. the team will return from the movie to the dormitory or hotel where they are staying. Lights will go out and players will be in bed by 10:20 P.M. the night before a game.

_Saturday’s Schedule_

On Saturday morning the football managers will telephone the players in their rooms at 8:30 A.M. The boys who want coffee or juice will be served at 9 A.M. The pre-game meal will be served at 10 A.M., and will consist of the following:

11-12 ounce choice sirloin strip, well done
Green peas
Dry toast, two slices (no butter)
Honey
Hot tea (no cream).

We will have a squad meeting at 10:30 A.M., and leave for the stadium at 12:10 P.M., preparing to meet our opposition at 2 P.M. During the squad meeting we will go over all tricky situations that might arise during the game. After the meeting the defensive and offensive coaches will meet with the signal callers and quarterbacks respectively, and review our final game plans.

After we arrive at the stadium, we send our passers out to warm up about 31 minutes before game time, and the backs and ends will come out about 26 minutes before game time. Our linemen start warming up about 30 minutes before the game. As 2 P.M. approaches, we always feel we are ready and we have done the very best we can to get ready for our particular opponent.

I failed to mention a procedure we follow which we think is highly desirable. During the week of the game, the assistant coach who scouted Saturday’s opponent lives in the football dormitory with the players. From 7:30-10:00 P.M. nightly, when we do not have squad meetings, he will show films of the opposition in the dormitory. He will answer questions and give the players any information they are seeking on our opposition. We find our players do a better job when they understand _why_ we ask them to do something. On the field many times we do not have the time to explain _why_. The assistant in the dormitory does have the time to explain _why_ and as a result the players do a more intelligent and better job of playing.

GRADING THE GAME FILM

Grading the game film is a very definite part of our planning. If we do not know who is doing what during a game, we can’t do an intelligent job of planning and coaching. I am sold on our grading system, and we feel that through the study of films we can determine who to play, and also who _not_ to play, in critical situations. Knowing this information in advance has won a number of football games for us.

Our procedure for grading films is for one coach to take one position and grade every player in that position offensively and defensively. It is possible for a player to get one of three possible scores, plus (+), minus (-), or ungradable (U), on each play. Our criteria is as follows:

_Plus_ (+)—If the boy carries out his assignment and gets his job done properly, his coach will give him a plus. His technique of execution might not be the way he was taught, but we are concerned with the fact either he did or did not do his job.

_Minus_ (-)—If the player failed to carry out his assignment and/or his man “whipped” him, then he is graded minus (for the particular play).

_Ungradable_ (_U_)—If a player is not shown in the picture or he does not have the opportunity to help out on the play, he is ungradable and would receive (U). An example would be the defensive right end when the play goes away from him and in all probability he will not have an opportunity to take part in the play.

After getting a grade for each play, like symbols are added together, and the total number of offensive (or defensive) plays participated in to determine percentages. Divide the sum total of plus and minus signs into the total number of plus signs in order to arrive at the percentage of plays that got the job done. We have found that a player must grade at least 61% on offense and on defense in order to be a winning football player.

We grade the offense and defense separately. If a player consistently makes a good grade on defense and a poor grade on offense, we know either we have to play him only on defense or we must give him more offensive work.

We have several other expressions, which we have borrowed from baseball terminology, that we use in our grading system. They are as follows:

_RBI_—Stands for runs batted in, and means something extra good, such as intercepting a pass, causing or recovering a fumble, blocking a punt, throwing a key block—a real clutch play. These are what we call the “big plays” and they are the ones that win the tough games for you. If your team does not make many big plays, you will not win many tough games. We place a great deal of emphasis on the big play. Frankly, we would rather have a boy make three or four RBI’s, even though his grade is only 50-55%, rather than have a boy get 65-68% and never make any big plays.

_Errors_—If a player busts an assignment, gets a penalty, misses a tackle in open field, permits a receiver to get behind him, fumbles the ball, or commits some act of a similar negative nature, we consider this bad and he is given an error. A player who consistently makes two or three errors per game simply cannot play for us. His play will cost you more ball games than you will ever win with him. Consequently, we watch the errors column very closely when we are grading film.

CONCLUSION

Coaching football is a race against time. Time lost on the practice field can never be regained. We attempt to utilize every minute possible in preparing for our opponents and our practice sessions.