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AFM Magazine


Can Big Mo Be Stopped?

Every coach goes through it - How do you stop your opponents\' momentum?
by: Patrick Finley
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It doesn’t take long for Larry Kehres to teach a reporter a lesson about momentum. Kehres, whose ridiculous resume includes seven Div. III national titles since 1993 for Mount Union College, is making dinner at his home and talking to the reporter on the phone at the same time. “Don’t let a mistake bug you,” he said. “Just think about it. You have periods of frustration, happiness and boredom every day. You just have to –.” That’s when the phone dies.

The reporter calls back apologetically, blaming the poor service on his cell phone.

“See, unexpected things happen every day, like I told you,” he said. “Just don’t lose your head because of it.” Momentum is a legitimate factor in the world of football. In a game filled with emotion, a small percentage of plays swing the attitudes of players and the outcomes of games.

The key, Kehres said, is to know how to react to the unexpected, whether it be a great play or a demoralizing turnover.

Figuring out how to deal with momentum – usually created by so-called “sudden change” plays – is as key to coaching as a good game plan. “You don’t know what’s going to happen,” Kehres said. “But you can prepare for it mentally.”

Practice Makes Perfect

While you can never fully prepare for sudden change, it’s possible to practice those situations to get your players used to such situations. When James Madison coach Mickey Matthews was at UTEP 20 years ago, he and other assistant coaches had a method for teaching sudden change.

The timing, on the other hand, was designed to be as random as a quick turnover. “We’d talk about it until we were blue in the face,” Matthews said. “We had some young secondary players. I guess when you’re not very good, you’re trying to stay in as many games as long as you can.”

A handful of times, assistants would blow the whistle and declare that there’d just been a turnover. A scout team offense would run a series of plays within 30 seconds. The plays were those UTEP coaches determined their opponent liked to call after sudden change. “The coordinator wouldn’t tell the other assistant coaches when he did it,” Matthews said. “It was just something that we did to convince our players that that’s how fast it happens, and that’s what play they’re going to run.

“You have to be prepared for the sudden change to occur. You can not let it surprise your coaching staff or your players. It’s a game of critical situations. Many times, those critical situations happen in a hurry. You have to be prepared for them and not let them catch you by surprise.”

Chuck Long, the offensive coordinator at Oklahoma, sees his team’s defense preparing for sudden change. As an offensive mind, Long knows how important it is for a defense to be ready for anything. “Our defense practices sudden change,” he said. “It’s probably the least-practiced moment there is. There’s more sudden change than you think.”

Urbana University head coach Todd Murgatroyd plans turnovers in his practices, too. During scrimmages, the NAIA coach scripts in interceptions and fumbles to see how his defense will react. “I think you work on it in practice like anything else,” he said. “That’s how your players know how to handle sudden change.”

There’s no substitute for the emotion of game day, however. “You can try to simulate that in practice,” Kehres said. “You can simulate fumbles and plays off returns. It’s practice and it’s a simulation, but it doesn’t contain the emotion of the game.”

Staying Stoic

If Long keeps a poker face during the game, it’s on purpose. He doesn’t want his players to get too high or too low; either way, his players will lose focus. “I’m an old quarterback myself, and I was taught that way,” he said. “I try to stay even keel. My voice and mannerisms are the same, and I stay consistent. It shows them that I practice what I preach.”

Telling your players a turnover is no big deal doesn’t mean a whole lot if you look furious. Says Long: “Poise is big. There’s more emotion on defense. But with the quarterback, I do teach them to stay on an even keel. If they ride the emotional wave, they’re going to be mentally drained halfway through.”

Kehres said momentum can spread like wildfire on the sideline, which is both good and bad. He wants his players to be poised; in his words, his players need to be “appropriately happy, but also appropriately concerned.”

“There’s so much emotion in the college game,” he said. “Success by a player can lead to success by more players. You get on an emotional high. When you have momentum in the game, you have a real upbeat, ‘come on, let’s go’ emotion created. Your sideline players are really into the game.”

But if a team is on the receiving end of a few bad plays, look out. “Suddenly, it’s deathly quiet on your sideline,” Kehres said. “The concern spreads to the players. I want to stay steady and consistent on the sideline.” So when his team is reeling, Kehres tries to stay as normal as possible. On the ensuing pass play, Kehres will scream out ‘ball!’ whenever a pass is thrown. Soon, his team will join in.

“You try to help your guys understand that there’s probably about 150 plays from scrimmage,” he said. “You’re approaching 2,000 player opportunities. There’s going to be times when you get beat, and times when you do well.”

The flip side of that for Kehres – and other coaches – is that he needs to make a point to show approval to his players.

“I’m fairly stoic,” he said. “If I’m not careful, I don’t show any emotion at football games. But I try to remind myself to be happy and to show it. I try to remind myself, ‘C’mon, be positive, be happy,’ when good things are happening. I try to be happy, or should I say, externally happy.”

Go for the Kill

It might be one of the oldest clichés in coaching, but attempting a long play right after a sudden change play works for a reason. Often times, the opposing team is emotionally down after a turnover. “We always try to game-plan explosives – big plays, shots, trick plays,” Long said. “Those plays can create momentum if you hit them. You try to do those after sudden change when they’re in shock.”

Oklahoma, one of the best big-play teams in the country the past few years, runs those plays not only for a series of reasons. “It gives you momentum, it can put games away, and it can also change field position,” Long said. “That’s a demoralizer now. Not only does it completely keep your momentum, but it can demoralize a defense.”

But there reaches a point when a trick play or a deep pass becomes predictable. Long knows that, and has a series of plays he likes to run when he thinks the opposition is expecting an explosive play. “After a while, they’ll know that we take a shot,” Long said. “They may get softer in coverage. It’s a good time for a simple run or screen pass. They’re thinking you’ll try the downtown shot, so those shorter plays work pretty well.”

Kehres is cautious about going deep after sudden change plays. “You have to be careful, because you can put yourself in second-and-10,” he said. “You want to have offensive plays or concepts that you’re really good at. When you get the opportunity, you have to do your best thing. You have to do what you’re best at when you’re trying to build momentum.”

Matthews said that attempting a big play shows that a team has a killer instinct. “When you have the other team reeling, I think most good programs are going to go right for the jugular,” he said. After sudden change plays, Matthews’ offensive coordinator often asks if he wants to take a shot at a deep play. His answer is the result of many variables. “Weather conditions, what the score is, how we’re playing, where you are in the game,” he said. “Sometimes, it’s off a gut feeling.”

Do Your Homework

There’s more than just a gut feeling that goes into taking a shot after you get the ball off a sudden change. A major part of film study, for many coaches, is finding one player to attack after sudden change. Many times, coaches will attack a cornerback or safety will little experience, hoping that his mind is still on his team’s turnover. But coaches also play amateur psychiatrist when studying film.

“Body language is a lot of that,” Murgatroyd said. “Football is a team game, but if we see somebody that’s vulnerable, we’re going to attack that vulnerable area. That’s just good strategy.”

Kehres agrees. “Find a player on the defense that’s young and inexperienced, and go at him,” he said. The flip side – at least for defensive coaches – is to not let your players show signs of weakness.

“When there’s a big turnover, you try to gather your kids up to get their attention,” Matthews said. “I want to make sure I have good eye contact with them. You’ve got some time to remind them what plays they like to run after a turnover.” Doing this not only keeps your team level-headed, but also gives future opponents fewer players to pick on. “Immature teams don’t handle it correctly,” Matthews said. “We cannot allow that, players having their heads down. As a defensive player or defensive coach, you have to respond to situations as they come up. You have to expect the unexpected the entire game.”

Lessons Learned

How teams handle sudden change plays is a great reflection of how well a team is coached, and what kind of mettle its players have. “It’s maturity and confidence,” Matthews said. “You’re not going to get any confidence until you’ve been through some tough situations. You have to have confidence to not get rattled after sudden change.”

Those lessons, Murgatroyd said, help young players on and off the football field. “At home or on the road, football’s football – there’s always momentum shifts,” Murgatroyd said. “I’m a firm believer that football is a great teacher for life; it teaches you how to handle adversity. How you handle it is up to you.”

Special Teams Key To Sudden Change

Urbana University head coach Todd Murgatroyd used his special teams to help pull an upset against NAIA No. 12 Trinity International in September. During the game, Urbana faked a punt to gain 60 yards and set up a score. The team's punter landed five balls inside the 5-yard line, leading to two safeties.

"There's always one or two plays that dictate a game," he said. "You never know when those plays are going to happen. It could be on offense or defense, but a lot of time momentum shifts happen on special teams."

As an assistant at Kent State from 1995 – when he served as a tight ends coach, an outside linebackers coach and a recruitment coordinator – Murgatroyd remembers the Naval Academy gaining a mental edge against the Golden Flashes when the teams played in 1998.

"They returned a kick for a touchdown," he said. "It was almost like, 'Here we go.' It deflated us. Any kick return, blocked punt, punt return -- there's always great big plays. Maybe more so than offense and defense, special teams is big for momentum."





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