Outline for Technology Game-planning

Head Coach, Fordham
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With the growth of technology in football and the ever-increasing demands on coaches’ time game planning and scheduling has become even more important providing the foundation for a successful football program.

This is an outline of the weekly schedule we use at Fordham University for offensive game planning. The outline also highlights the manner technology makes our film study either more efficient or allows us to study defensive tendencies in more detail than we were previously able to do.

Sunday
The first order of business on Sunday is grading and evaluating the previous day’s game. We grade it as positional coaches, as a staff, and then review it with the players.

Immediately the film study of the next opponent begins. At this point we should have from three to five games of our upcoming opponent already broken down, digitized and inputed into our computer with only their previous day’s game of the opponent remaining to analyze as a staff to make sure we are all on the same page with what we are calling the different fronts, coverages, blitzes and line movements. Identification and evaluation of the personnel and substitutions must be done with the latest film, as it is the best indicator of who will be playing against us the following week.

At this point technology plays a little role because the evaluation or personnel has been and will always be an objective evaluation that we, as coaches, must do on our own. We will watch three or four games on Sunday of the upcoming opponent to try to get a feel for the overall structure of the defense and how our opponent must change their philosophy based on whom they are playing and the style of offense they face.

Monday
Technology instantly plays a role as we begin our Monday offensive staff meeting. We use the computer-generated reports to identify tendencies that can be based on down and distance, formation, field position, etc. Based on our Sunday film evaluation and the reports, we make decisions on what formations we will utilize and study against the opponent.

Thanks to our digital editing station, we can instantly call up on our computer’s video monitor our opponent’s defenses against the sets that we are going to use against them. The computer can also generate an instant report giving us defensive fronts, coverages and blitzes against the specific formation we are studying. These formation-based studies continue until we feel we have the volume of offense we will need for our general game plan.

Our blitz film study follows as we can do a thorough study of how and when an opponent blitzes. W can study an opponent’s blitz tape from many different angles (formation, field, personnel group, down and distance) with our ability to sort the film clips instantly.

Finally, on Monday, we begin to game-plan specific situations starting with the red zone. Again, using the mass of information we installed on Sunday, we can study all film clips with a computer-generated report. We can review every snap of the defense from a certain point on the field to the 5-yard line.

Tuesday - Wednesday
After planning our practice sessions, we continue to game-plan specific situations on Tuesday and Wednesday, including:

• Third and long
• Third and medium
• Short yardage
• Goal line
• Coming-out (ball inside own 5-yard line)
• 2-point plays
• Two-minute offense
• Four-minute offense

Thursday - Saturday
From Thursday to Saturday we still use technology but not in a set way in terms of Game-planning for the upcoming game. For instance, our receiver coach can use the computer and digital editing system to study a particular corners technique in a coverage and how it might change against different formations. This will help us coach the different releases and initial stems of the routes we may work that week. All positional coaches can access this information that sometimes results in game plan adjustments later in the week.

We primarily use technology from Thursday to Saturday to start inputing the information we will need on the next opponent, so when Sunday comes we are able to start the entire schedule again and maintain our efficiency as a staff.

Technology aids us greatly in preparing these situations as the film and reports are available at the press of a button. But it is important not to let technology overwhelm you or your staff. Technology can save time, but only if you utilize its abilities and focus on the key areas that will enable your team to be thoroughly prepared.

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