AFM Subscribers Ask...

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Three Heisman Trophy winners in five years… USC’s Pete Carroll has had three of his players – Carson Palmer, Matt Leinart, and Reggie Bush – win football’s ultimate individual prize in his five seasons with the Trojans. He also has two National Championships, a 34 game winning streak (broken in last year’s BCS Championship with Texas) and an overall 54-10 record. Considered one of the outstanding defensive minds in football, Carroll has a combined 31 years of both pro and college coaching experience.

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Q. In your own words, explain your defensive philosophy of football? Eric Firestone, Assistant Coach, Talladega High School (AL). AFM subscriber since 2004.

    Our defensive philosophy is about getting the ball. Everything we call and design on defense is to get the ball, whether our opponent is throwing it or running it. We design things to get close to the football, rip it out, and take it away.

Q. How do you continually evolve your offense to meet the adjustments the defenses have made for you while at the same time making it understandable and efficiently executed by your players? Eric Struck, Assistant Coach, Sioux Falls Washington High School (SD). AFM subscriber since November, 2005.

    It’s a natural progression, an evolution of what you do. assess in the off-season and add to it and then subtract from it. Always try to stay ahead. First, to do that, you have to know yourself really well. Then fit your thoughts and ideas to your personnel and then try to make things come together.

Q. I’m a coach in NYC and our field is 4 miles away from the school. The kids get out at 3pm and practice doesn’t begin until 4pm. How would you structure your weekly practice starting from Monday-Friday. Based on priorities what would you do? Danny Landberg, Assistant Coach, Erasmus Hall High School (NY). AFM subscriber since March, 2005

    First, you have to be really organized so there’s no wasted time at all….once the whistle blows, we don’t stop until practice is over. You have to organize every time frame.

    Second, I think it’s important to have objectives every day that are specific to your team’s needs. We state those ahead of time so we go out with a real intent of what we’re trying to get done every day. The coaches know it and the players know it.
 
   Third, we then try to assess it by the end of the day and whether or note we met those objectives.

Q. How do you address an opponent’s stadium where your team has not historically played well and it is a well known fact? Jim Dostal, Defensive Coordinator, Prairie High School (IA). AFM subscriber since 1997.
    We have to be able to play in lots of different environments and weather all the time. But you can’t worry about all that. We just try to make everything the same. Remind everyone it’s the same ball, the field is the same size and there’s just a different uniform across the line of scrimmage. We need to play how we know we can regardless of where the game is.

Q. Over the last few years USC has had one of the most electrifying offenses in the last few decades. With your defensive background, what kind of players present the most problems to you as a defensive specialist? George Bork, Assistant Coach, Skyline High School (UT). AFM subscriber since 2000.
    Without question, running quarterbacks.

Q. There have been many great running backs for USC. Do you have any tips or drills that may be helpful in getting them off the ball quicker and hitting the hole? Jeff Dallas, Assistant Youth Coach, Modesto, CA. AFM subscriber since October, 2003

    The greatest part in factoring the effectiveness of running backs is natural. Natural instincts, natural quickness or mobility or the ability to break tackles. We work hard on acceleration – quickness off the ball – at every position and it’s directly relative to the running backs. But most of what they do comes from natural gifts.

    Reggie Bush and LenDale White have natural gifts. Reggie’s burst and ability to change direction without losing speed made him so dangerous. LenDale’s strength is both his power and aggressiveness.

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