U-TURN How Southern Virginia University went from 3-8 to 8-2.

On February 9th 2009, I agreed to become the head football coach at Southern Virginia University. At the time, the SVU football program faced several obstacles both on and off the field. They included a low team grade point average, discipline problems, and recruitment and retention problems. In addition, they had embraced a mediocre mentality from a losing record.

When I accepted the head coaching job, SVU had only had one winning season in school history and had averaged just two wins per season over the history of the program. We had to recruit better players and coach better, but most of all we had to build a winning mentality within our football program.

Five seasons later, our team finished first in the United States Collegiate Athletic Association and we had the best record in the nation of NCAA Division D-III independent teams at 8-2. We accomplished our goal of creating a winning mentality and changing our win/loss record.

What were the key steps in this turnaround?

I first hired assistant football coaches that understood the importance of being role models and providing a positive example to our players. It is not enough that my staff understands the intricacies and nuances of football, but we embrace the dual concept of growing a strong football program and teaching young men to be successful and assets to society. As a staff, we made a commitment to correct the off-the-field problems within our football program before tackling any on-the-field issues.

Attacking the Low Team GPA

As head football coach, I needed to clearly communicate goals to our players and staff so that they could be embraced. We wanted our players to collectively raise their team GPA. We knew that they would have to attend class, study, and be successful in their course work to accomplish this goal.
I explained our displeasure with the team GPA of 2.39 and instituted mandatory rules that would help improve the overall average. First, we had to ensure the players attended class. Therefore, our football staff issued a statement that all SVU football players must attend class or they will no longer be members of the football program.

Next, we had to encourage the players, especially the at-risk players, to study. So, we implemented a study hall from Monday – Thursday from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm. The study hall was mandatory for all incoming players and any returning players with a GPA of 2.75 or lower. Then, we had to provide a means for our student- athletes to do well in their class work. So we partnered with the university study services to provide tutoring for any player that requested or needed it.

Each semester, we stress to our student-athletes the key tools to help them succeed in the classroom. We encourage them to focus, read, know their professors, have 100% attendance, and hand in their assignments on time. By making our off-the-field issue of a low GPA a priority, our coaching staff helped several athletes raise not only their GPA but also their awareness and aspirations in the classroom. Our goal was a 3.0 and currently, we have a team GPA of 2.96.
 
Attacking Team Discipline Problems

As a head coach, it is important to follow your words with actions and to stand behind the guidelines your staff has set for players. We set ground rules that we wanted to be followed on the field, in the classroom, and in the community.

The following five rules hang in every meeting room within the SVU football program:
1.  Be on time.
2.  Give 100%.
3.  No excuses.
4.  Team before me.
5.  Handle yourself in an adult and gentlemanly manner at all times.

One of the keys to curtailing our past discipline problems was handling discipline issues on an individual basis. Each player is an individual and we wanted to speak with each athlete and explain how his behavior has been hurting the team collectively. As a disciplinarian, I tend to be much harder on a freshmen or sophomore for a minor discipline issue than I am on a junior or senior, especially if it’s the upper classman’s first issue. The reasoning behind this is I don’t want our players to be comfortable with disobeying the rules. Instead, I want to discourage them from behaving adversely to the team and university policies.

Our football team has gone from having major discipline problems every semester to only having minor discipline problems. Frequently, there are semesters where the SVU football program has no discipline problems.

Attacking the Recruiting
& Retention Problem

When I became head coach, there were 24 players on the roster from the previous administration. As a staff, we indentified the problems of why there were such low numbers on the team. Not only was there a recruiting issue of getting good players to become part of our team, but there was a retention problem of keeping players on the team. Therefore, we designed three key actions that would address our recruiting and retention concerns, and, if implemented correctly, would correct and resolve the problems.

Recruiting

1.  High school and homes. Spend more time in the high schools and homes of our recruiting areas. We negotiated with the SVU administration to commit to a substantial recruiting budget which allowed our staff to spend more time recruiting our target areas.

2.  Recruiting visits. Increase the number of recruits visiting campus. We currently hold eight recruiting weekends each year and have multiple recruits visiting campus each week during the off-season.

3.  Recruiting communication. Spend more time contacting recruits via phone and email. Each coach on our staff commits to office hours during the week in which they sit in our offices and make several uninterrupted recruiting calls during the evening.

Retention

1.  Recruit the prototypical players. Recruit players that fit our university and football program. Our staff only recruits players that fit academically, socially, and work ethic-wise with our university and our coaching staff.
Highlight football graduate accomplishments. Emphasize our graduates’ past accomplishments through graduation. Make this a topic of interest in the first conversation we have with recruits.

2.  Exemplify compassion with trust and care. We want to show our players that we care about their well being. Be sure that each player in the program knows that the head coach and position coaches care about them outside of football. Show a sincere interest in their education, family, and life.

3.  Occasionally, players leave because of financial, family, or academic problems. But the vast majority of our players are now coming to Southern Virginia University and staying through graduation.

Attacking the Won/Loss Problem

Creating a Competitive/Mental Edge

At the end of every spring practice and a couple of times per week during the season, our team does a competition drill. During spring football our staff will split the team into eight groups and have them compete against each other in tug of war, truck push, tire wrestling, or an advanced relay race. During the fall season the competition drills are game situations, such as the 2-minute drill, 4-minute drill, goal line drills, and other fundamental drills.

While these types of drills encourage competition, they also encourage team building and camaraderie. The team building that comes from these competitions is productive and inspiring. For example, players from different positions that don’t always interact become friends. Furthermore, they encourage players to compete each day and promote mental and physical toughness. The player who wins or finishes close to the top during each competition drill almost always plays well on Saturdays.  

Finishing Equals Winning

I do not tolerate players that do not finish. Not only in football, but in life, finishing is the most important thing we do. Our staff continually speaks to our players about finishing. During one of our practices you will hear our coaches say “Finish” over twenty five times, and then you will hear the coaches tell the players exactly what they want them to finish. At least once a week in a meeting or after practice I talk to our players about finishing. The message is always the same: finish the play you are running, finish the quarter, finish the game, finish your education, finish raising your children, finish your job, and finish your marriage. People who finish are winners.

Aim for the Top

Get your coaches to focus all their off-season attention on whoever your best opponent is. Clearly explain to them that their job is to out-recruit, out-coach, and out-work that program each day. Then get your players to focus, in the off-season, on becoming a better football team than your best opponent. Get them to wake-up every morning with a focus to out-lift, out-run, out-work, and out-execute that football program on that day. Do not be afraid to speak about your desire to overtake the opponent in staff and team meetings. Talking about what your program is going to do in order to become a better football program than your opponent is critical.

If you can sell your vision and if you are doing the correct things each day during the off-season, then you gradually become a better football program than the best one on your schedule. When your program raises to this level, not only are you better than the previous best team, but you are also better than everyone else on your schedule.

Program Guidelines

• Expectations. I gave our players clear explanations of what was expected of them in the classroom, community, and on the playing field. We have a standard of performance on and off the field: obtain a team GPA of 3.0, volunteer in the community at least once a month, and win a game per week.

• Promote the team. I eliminated the whiners and kept the winners. Surround yourself with great people, both coaches and players. Get rid of anyone that may be a lockerroom cancer. No individual in the program is bigger than the program.

• Family. Promote a team/family atmosphere through loyalty and open communication.

• Placement. Make sure your coaches and players understand their roles.

• Preparation. Give your coaches and players opportunities to prepare for their role. Confidence through preparation. During the off-season, our staff takes multiple professional development trips with other college staffs. It gives all of our coaches an opportunity to learn what other college programs are doing well. During practices we will put our players in specialized game situations each week in order to prepare them for situations that they may face in the game on Saturday.

• Management. Provide leadership through planning, example, guidance, and honesty. Make sure your players are always headed in the correct direction.

• Conditioning. Correct conditioning will win a team at least two games per year. Make your players make an individual commitment to the conditioning program.

• Motivation. Every week is different and every year is different. Constantly motivate your coaches and players.

About the Author: DeLane Fitzgerald recently accepted the head coaching position at Frostburg State University. He had been the head coach at Southern Virginia University since 2009. He also coached at Bethel College and his alma mater, James Madison University.