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AFM Magazine


The Diary of a New Coach - Part I

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Norman, Okla., is 17 miles south of Oklahoma City and perhaps most famous for being home of the Oklahoma Sooners. Football has deep roots in Norman. Norman High School, a Class 6A school with a strong football tradition itself, has nine state championships.

NHS runs out of the offset I-formation and our base plays are either 42/43 Crunch (an iso on the playside backer) with a complimentary 26/27 Counter, or an option attack, depending on our personnel. Most of our passing is from a three-step drop, a sprint-out, or a play-action rollout off of our Crunch and Counter with our defense a base 4-4.

The 1999 class of freshmen has been anointed the revival of Tiger football. We had big linemen coming in and a quarterback with what seemed like a bionic arm. The class ahead of them went undefeated, and together, the two classes are expected to soon compete for a state title. It was our job as coaches to teach and prepare these young men the basic principles of Norman football to prepare them for their careers.

Week One:

The first day of two-a-days there was a sense of excitement. It was a new season and one more rung on a ladder leading to varsity football. The senior members of the coaching staff termed two-a-days a necessary evil, but I enjoyed and looked forward to them.

We started our morning practice with a conditioning drill. We set up four stations with various drills and went three minutes on and one minute off. By the conclusion of stations, the excitement had been replaced by exhaustion. The first problem we ran into that freshmen do not know how to challenge themselves. When they get tired, they shut down, stop listening and start taking plays off.

Our staff was as excited as the players for the first day of practice in full pads. We ran the "Oklahoma Drill," which was one of the more exciting drills of the camp. A lane is built with bags or cones. There's a blocker, a ball carrier and a tackler. The tackler must get rid of the block and make the tackle. The ball carrier must stay in the lane. We use it as a toughness drill as well as a drill to build unity. Players cheer each other on and, hopefully, start molding together as a team. We paid particular attention to technique and the dangers of hitting with your head down, spearing or leading with the crown of the helmet.

It took time for the players to adjust to pads and the complaints rolled in. The pants were tight, the helmet was uncomfortable, etc. Then came a sudden rash of injuries: ankle sprains with no swelling, pulled muscles with no knots, hyperventilating that went away as soon as conditioning periods ended. Toughness became a problem. Guys would also leave the huddle during team drills to go get water. Finally, we made a rule that no one was allowed any water until a coach gave them permission to get it.

End of week One- intersquad Scrimmage:

As we stretched and went through warmups, the players had no fire. I figured it was fatigue or stiffness, but it turned out to be a lack of enthusiasm for the scrimmage. For some reason it was just another day at practice instead of a chance to hold or lose a position. But the coaching staff was excited about the scrimmage and we were anxious to see how much work we needed and in what areas.

The scrimmage started off slow, especially on defense. I could tell that our players were thinking about getting to the first game and wanted to fast forward through the preseason. Although we got better as it went on, the tempo never got as high as I expected. As a staff, we were concerned and we immediately looked for adjustments. In a different year it might not have been such a big deal, but this team had size at every position and more than its share of skill. We needed to put the pieces together ... as quickly as possible.

Week Two:

At Norman High, we start 22 different players. At the ninth grade level, our objective is not winning but it is preparing 44 young men for varsity football. This makes decisions difficult because we have to decide on which side of the ball a particular player is more valuable. We can switch athletes from offense one week and to defense the next, but there are no two-way starters.

We moved several players around in order to get our best 22 on the field and allowing us to use the depth chart as a motivational tool for the second and third teamers. We moved players up and down the depth chart quite a bit during the first two weeks. Young kids have the mentality that they have to be a starter to contribute. It's no secret to coaches how beneficial an aggressive scout team can be to the development of your squad, but freshmen measure success in playing time.

Week Three:

After taking Sunday off, we had a lousy Monday. With just one day off, they had gotten out of our routine. I asked the varsity coaches what to do when your whole team is looking to take the day off. The consensus was to try and get in as much instruction as possible.

With three days remaining before our first scrimmage against another team, we had a lot of kids just trying to "survive." The players were feeling sorry for themselves because they hot, sore and tired. The fights for starting jobs fizzled. No one wanted to push themselves to work harder. We realized it was our job to not only install our offense and defense into these kids' minds, but also implant an effective work ethic.

On Thursday, we scrimmaged a local freshmen team and really got it handed to us by a team with equal talent, but far less size. Like our previous scrimmage, we were short on enthusiasm. Our biggest problems on defense were arm tackling and pursuit angles. Our ends weren't staying home and corners were not containing. On offense, our line was too passive and our backs were timid. Our secondary did have four interceptions. We also had a couple big plays on offense and one or two big hits. We saw potential, but we also saw laziness.

Week Four:

The week started with more position changes and depth-chart changes. We knew we couldn't switch players around much more after this because the season was approaching and we had to get some chemistry.

As a coach, you have to prioritize. With a 30-minute session of individual drills and players with one or less year of experience, you're really handicapped as far as what you can install. I made a list of the varsity drills and then implemented the ones that seemed most relevant to our philosophies.

Our running game was moving along a lot quicker than our three-step passing game, so I had the receivers work more on aggressive downfield blocking than catching or pattern drills. Defensively, we devoted a lot of time to proper tackling. This limited the number of coverages we could run, but we knew we'd see many more runs than passes at the freshmen level, so we prioritized.

On Wednesday, we went in full pads despite having our second and final scrimmage the next day. We also spent much less time preparing for our opponent and more time working on our offense and defense. One problem we incurred that ended up slowing down our progress was going No.1 offense versus No. 1 defense too early and often. The pace was too fast for the coaches to pick up problems. Also, our defense was ahead of our offense, leading to confidence problems.

The enthusiasm still wasn't where I expected it to be for the scrimmage, but it was improved as we went through our pre-game warmups. When the game started, we were a much better team than the week before. Our line was more aggressive and the defense was really hitting. It was rewarding to see that the areas we worked on in practice were improving in game situations.

But fatigue set in and our opponent drove and scored against our No. 1 defense and we recognized two major problems: a lack of conditioning and a lack of mental toughness.

In 1999, Daren Harley started down the path of becoming a coach, as a 9th grade coach in Norman, Oklahoma. Here's his look at how he survived the season.
Week Four:

The week started with more position changes and depth-chart changes. We knew we couldn't switch players around much more after this because the season was approaching and we had to get some chemistry.

As a coach, you have to prioritize. With a 30-minute session of individual drills and players with one or less year of experience, you're really handicapped as far as what you can install. I made a list of the varsity drills and then implemented the ones that seemed most relevant to our philosophies.

Our running game was moving along a lot quicker than our three-step passing game, so I had the receivers work more on aggressive downfield blocking than catching or pattern drills. Defensively, we devoted a lot of time to proper tackling. This limited the number of coverages we could run, but we knew we'd see many more runs than passes at the freshmen level, so we prioritized.

On Wednesday, we went in full pads despite having our second and final scrimmage the next day. We also spent much less time preparing for our opponent and more time working on our offense and defense. One problem we incurred that ended up slowing down our progress was going No.1 offense versus No. 1 defense too early and often. The pace was too fast for the coaches to pick up problems. Also, our defense was ahead of our offense, leading to confidence problems.

The enthusiasm still wasn't where I expected it to be for the scrimmage, but it was improved as we went through our pre-game warmups. When the game started, we were a much better team than the week before. Our line was more aggressive and the defense was really hitting. It was rewarding to see that the areas we worked on in practice were improving in game situations.

But fatigue set in and our opponent drove and scored against our No. 1 defense and we recognized two major problems: a lack of conditioning and a lack of mental toughness.

First Game Week:

The team had a long weekend with no Saturday practice. We resumed Monday and it was time to start our season. Our game week wasn't too different from the previous weeks. Our depth chart was becoming more and more solidified, and we were molding together as a coaching staff. Practice went well, and the mistakes became fewer and fewer by the day. We felt we could run the ball behind our big offensive line and that was our game plan. Once we established the run, we would go play-action for our big play.

On the first play of the game, our opponent reeled off a 40-yard run. It took them three more plays to score and jump out 7-0. Our defense wasn't playing game speed. We wanted to feel our opponents out instead of going after them. Our offense could move the ball but was plagued by miscues. We had five fumbles and numerous missed blocks and blown assignments. It looked like we were going to go into the half down 14-0, but with 30 seconds left we let a punt get returned for a touchdown.

We were having a problem with our inside backers. They weren't playing "down hill," they were stepping back as they read. Our corners were getting blocked and losing contain. In the second half, we outscored our opponents 8-6 but managed to fumble on their 1-yard line twice. We lost 26-8 to a team with average talent but outstanding discipline and coaching.

It's always frustrating to play below your potential, and I was angry at myself for not having my positions better prepared. I had been instructing my corners to contain, but they weren't prepared to protect their sideline, use their shoulders to keep the ball carrier inside and get rid of the blocker. At this level you cannot be specific enough.

Second Game Week:

We opened our season on a Thursday and our second game was the following Tuesday. It gave us a very short workweek with little time to correct and little time to prepare. On Friday, we were in shorts and T-shirts and just stretched and ran. I was troubled by the fact that no one was too upset about the loss. That means they are ready to move on and win the next one, or our team just isn't investing their hearts and souls into the team.

On Saturday we had a long day that started with a loud film session. We decided we would be hard on everyone in film to emphasize how important little things are to the success of the team. We added a lot of instruction to our day to correct the mistakes. Sunday was an off day, Monday a walk-through in half pads and with only one real day of preparation under our belts, we were suiting up again on Tuesday.

When our guys are in the locker room dressing for the game, there is no focus. In an attempt to be more prepared at kickoff, we lengthened our pre-game. It seemed to me that having a little more warmup and some extra hitting before the first snap helped us to adjust to game tempo.

Our first drive was going well, thanks to a 30-yard gain on a bootleg pass, but we stalled out on their 40. However, their return man muffed the punt and we fell on it for a first and goal. Two plays later, we gave up an interception in the end zone. Before our opponent could work their way out of the hole, they fumbled and we were in business again. Our drive stalled on the 7-yard-line and our field goal was blocked.

Early in the third quarter, the game was called a scoreless tie due to lightning.






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