Friday Night Lights

No I am not talking about the movie or TV show.  I am talking about an activity that Coach Wong has done for a few years now to build team unity.

Players wear either their home or away jersey and their dates wear the opposite jersey.  The boys bring their dates to the football field and proceed to go through a mini practice.  The players take them through our warm up, stretch, then take them through different drills.

After that session the players then get 15 minutes with their dates to divide them into offense and defense and run through some plays.  Then the girls will play a whole flag football game.  Four 15 minute quarters and a half.  They play late enough so that the lights have to be turned on hence the name Friday Night Lights.  After the game the kids have dinner and mingle with the girls of course getting to eat first.

It is actually a really fun event as the girls and players have fun with the game.  What is funny to watch is how intense the players and girls get during the game.  I have seen some of the girls just take each other out.  Might be some good linebackers out there playing.  Of course as coaches we help make sure that the event runs smoothly and that dinner is ready.

The purpose of the event is to let the girls see what goes on with football practice.  The players are to ask girls from Timpview as it is also to build up that school unity and spirit.  I really like the event and believe that in the future I will incorporate it should I leave to another program.

What other events do some of you coaches do out there with your teams?  I would love to hear what you do.

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Why You Play Until the Clock Hits 00:00

This is a popular clip on Youtube of the ending to a basketball game.  Watch as the home team celebrates what they think is a winning shot.  People storm the court to celebrate with the players but they forget that there are still 0.6 seconds left on the clock.  By not even defending they allow the visiting team to get the ball to almost half court and take a shot.

Always Always make sure there is no time left on the clock.  Anything can happen at the end of a game.  Don't celebrate winning too early.

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Excited for the Coming Season

Well I am excited for this coming football season.  For those that don't know this Senior class were the sophomore's a couple years ago.  I wrote a little about our experience at Price Camp with them and how we weren't sure about how that season was going to turn out.

At that time we as coaches weren't sure how how many games we would win.  We thought we might not win many at all.  That year they ended up winning all but 1 game.  Last year same for them they lost 1 game as well barely losing to Alta.  This from a team with a majority of players that didn't win a single game as 8th graders.

Well now we are at full strength as any sophomores that were playing up are now with this team.  I think we have the potential to be a really really really good team.  Coach Clark told me yesterday he is excited for the coming season as it is gonna take a lot of coaching of these kids.  We replace all 6 DB's from last years team so a lot of opportunity for these kids to step up and play this coming year.  When you have the opportunity to teach kids and coach them up there is nothing more satisfying than seeing them succeed.

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Smart Football: Evolution of the Spread

Smart Football a blog written by Chris Brown is considered by many to be a pretty dang good expert on football and different schemes.  In his latest blog entry he posted 3 different videos and talked about the evolution of the spread from 2000 to now.

The first video is from the 1999 season.  I was out of the country that year so I missed out on that football season.

Next two videos are from Oregon and Chip Kelly.  Chris feels that Kelly and Malzahn at Auburn are the next to be the big time innovators of the spread.

How is that for irony, after Tony Franklin's run at Auburn now Malzahn is loved.  Makes you kind of wonder if it wasn't the head coach that was holding back that offense there.

As you watch the clips notice that there is more that Oregon does compared to Clemson in terms of personnel and plays.  But it is only part of the natural process of offenses.

Check out Smart Football to see some of his thoughts on the video that you can see.

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Lining the Running Back a Yard Further Back From the Line

So this coming season we are moving our backs a yard further from the line of scrimmage.  Reason we are doing this is because we feel it will allow our backs to get their shoulders more towards the line of scrimmage while we are running inside zone.  I like the move as I think it will allow our kids to get to the line in a more downhill style and might give a little bit more time for the blocks to develop.  We'll find out when the season starts.

What has been the experience of other coaches in dealing with the backs a yard further back in their alignment to the QB.  Please let me know so I can share it with our running backs coach.  Frank Henderson is the one who pushed for it and he really gave good reasons for doing so.  Well the season couldn't get here faster.

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