Here Come Summer Workouts
With school getting out and spring football well underway, it is an exciting time for football programs everywhere.
For me, the transition to summer workouts, practice, and 7 on 7 always made the upcoming season seem much more real. Whether you have been coaching for 1 year or 40 years, the excitement, optimism, and challenge of upcoming months was always motivating and brought on a greater sense of urgency about getting the most out of each day. As we enter this time, I wish you all the best for a fun, productive, and healthy few months getting ready for the upcoming season!
This edition includes some ideas on getting the most out of your practices, a one-on-one conversation with Lake Oswego Coach Steve Coury, as well as one of my best defensive drills that has been a staple of our practices for the past 25 years. I will also have the recurring Breaking the Huddle section and award another Game Ball! I look forward to touching on a variety of topics in the months ahead, so please message me with topic suggestions and feedback. Additionally, all articles and videos from previous editions are archived and available each month to subscribers. If there are other coaches who you think may be interested, please send me their email and I will get them included on the distribution list. I also encourage you to subscribe for $5/month using the subscribe button found a little further down in the Playbook. I look forward to doing my best to make it a valuable and useful resource.
JM
Effective Practices Win Games on Friday Nights
I often tell our players that if you want to win on Friday night, you have to beat your opponent throughout the week. I truly believe that victories on Fridays are not due to a great play call or inspirational speech but rather a byproduct of preparation done through purposeful, efficient, and focused practices. While I will spend time in future editions writing about various aspects of an effective practice, today I would like to discuss some big picture ideas on how to have your players ready for the game.
The first idea is one that I learned listening to Bill Walsh back in 1992 at a football clinic. Coach Walsh stated, “Everything you do in practice should translate directly to the game.” While it may seem like an obvious statement, he went on to say that at some point each off-season, he asks each position coach to make a list of every skill that is needed to play their respective positions. Coach Walsh would similarly make his own list for each group and then meet with each coach to compare lists. Once they had settled on a list for each position, he would tell the coach that, “Everything you do in practice should be from the list.” I have taken this to mean that any individual time, pre or post practice work, and time in the off-season should be laser focused on teaching/working on those specific skills with your players. If you are doing a drill that doesn’t directly teach to the list then you simply should not do the drill. I believe that every football movie I have ever seen includes the 3 man monkey roll drill but I can‘t ever recall that happening in a game. Similarly, I can remember as a player spending a fair amount of time as a defensive back working on the tip drill. While the tip drill situation may happen once or twice a season, as a DB in 2023 you may have to defend a perimeter screen 5 – 10 times a game, so practice reps should reflect that reality. I believe that Coach Walsh’s process is an excellent one, both recognizing the skills needed for each position and also helping you get the most out of your practice time.
A second idea that I strongly believe in is that practice should be harder than the game. I don’t mean that practice should be ultra physical with a lot of full contact, rather you should find ways in practice to create situations for your players that will make the game seem easier. A great example of this came from my good friend and mentor Matt Sweeney, the longtime coach at Foothill High School in Pleasanton, CA. While we did some offensive skeleton in practice, Matt believed that it was a bit unrealistic if the QB is throwing without a pass rush. Instead, we spent more practice time doing what we called Team Skeleton where we practiced our passing game in a full 11 on 11 situation. In addition, we would have 2 extra LBs stacked in front of the existing LBs. Each play the extra guys would blitz and the guy behind would drop thus creating a 6 or 7 man pressure along with 7 players dropping into coverage. While this made for some frustrating and trying times for the offense in practice, on Friday night there would be 2 fewer players on the defense which would seem much easier. Another way we have made practice tougher then the game is our approach for practicing PAT/FG. Each day, I have the 2 edge rushers on each side line up offsides to make it harder on the Wing to protect the edge. Hopefully it will seem easier on Friday night to block the edge when the rushers are not across the neutral zone.
Another example of this concept somewhat happened by accident. I can be impatient in practice and always in a hurry, so a while back I stopped having the scout team players put on different color vests because it seemed like we were always waiting for a guy to get a vest on or off. Instead we all wear our white practice jerseys at all times. In our opening game a few years ago, our first year starting QB had a great first half. As I went to congratulate him as he came off the field after a drive, he off hand commented, “It is so much easier when they are wearing different colored jerseys.” Even though that wasn’t my intention, the fact it made the game seem easier for him was a win for our team. While coming up with challenging situations for your players in practice may make practice at times frustrating, I believe these things will really help you on Friday night.
I suppose there are a handful of teams out there that are so talented that it doesn’t matter how well they practice….. I have never coached one of those teams! I truly believe that creating purposeful and challenging practices that prepare your players for all the scenarios that will come up on a Friday is often the difference between victory and defeat. For this reason, I like practices much more than games because it gives your players and coaches a chance to beat your opponent throughout the week by out practicing them each day.
1 on 1 Conversation with Lake Oswego Head Coach Steve Coury
Steve Coury has been the Head Coach at Lake Oswego High School since 1992. Over the past 31 seasons, Steve has won 2 State Titles, numerous League Championships, had many deep playoff runs as well as earning many coaching awards and accolades. More importantly, he is known as one of the really good guys in Oregon high school football. I met with Steve to discuss his thoughts on a range of topics including building a successful program, how to put together a cohesive staff, and even when he believes in going for 2. I appreciate Steve’s willingness to sit down and share his thoughts……thank you Steve !
Question: You have had tremendous success over the past 31 years and have evolved and adapted with your teams, but are there some program pillars or foundational ideas that you have had throughout your time at Lake Oswego?
SC: “One of the things we have always done here is get great buy in from everybody. What we do, and I learned this from my dad (former professional and collegiate coach Dick Coury), is you have got to make everybody feel good about being a part of it. We all have players that may never get in the game, especially with the schedule that we play, because it can just be very hard to get guys in. During the start of our season, I tell our coaches that during the stretching period I want them to visit with 5 players. These may be players they don’t normally see during the course of practice….so we have DL coaches visiting with WR’s and RB coaches talking to DB’s about primarily non-football related things (summer, post high school plans, family, etc). Throughout the course of the year, I do the same thing with the players. The guys that play a lot, they may not need a pat on the back, but for others it will feel great if you acknowledge their efforts….for example, “hey I saw you on film from yesterday’s practice, great block on Timmy”. This way they know I am watching and value their efforts. What it has done here is create total buy in. I am confident that you could call any kid on the roster and nearly all of them would have had a good experience.”
“Probably the best thing we do as a program, is evaluate the players on our roster and identify the best talent. Our approach to this is from my dad when he was with John Ralston and the Denver Broncos, when at the end of each year they would take the roster and rate it. The last 5 guys would be waived and they would pick up 5 guys to try to upgrade. What we have done here is take the idea and have coaches rate our players. After the first week, I ask each coach to rank what they believe are our best 30 players from #1 to #30. After every coach makes their own list, I take them and average them. You get a pretty good feel for your roster and it is really interesting to see how the numbers compare. What we found is we may look at the list and see hey, John Smith is ranked #12, why isn’t he playing? If he is one of our best players let’s move him and get him on the field. It opens up all kinds of discussions about guys because it is sometimes easy to pigeonhole guys based upon a quick, first impression. This process prevents that and has been really advantageous for us and we have discovered many guys this way.”
“Another thing we do is film our practices. I have been doing that since I got here mainly because I always saw my dad doing it. It is amazing how you can find players this way as well. You watch the film and say, “who is #17 on the scout team, we haven’t blocked him in 2 days!” One particular kid became our Noseguard as a result of popping up on the scout team film and was probably the best NG I have ever had.”
Question: Your coaching staff has had great continuity and been outstanding for so many years. What advice would you have for a younger coach in terms of putting together a staff?
SC: “The first thing is having good guys, and if they are good guys, then they are going to be loyal. I don’t think we can or should be clones. I am pretty laid back, some of my coaches are uptight / rule oriented. You got to have guys that are like you and believe in the same things you believe in. We have guys that will get after it but it is always within the way we do things. We don’t have a bunch of yellers and screamers because that is not my personality but we do have guys that will get into guys but it is always positive and good feedback. Having different styles and personalities is a good thing as long as you all believe in the same values about how to coach the players in your program.”
“I have been very lucky with the guys we have, I know how important they are and how much they do. They are good friends and my kind of people. I believe loyalty and being a good person comes first, previous coaching experience and knowledge is secondary and that part can be fostered by more experienced coaches. They will learn that part as they go. In coaches meetings, I want guys that will disagree with me and we can have discussions that can even get tense but I know when we leave the meeting we are all on the same page.”
Question: As far as game strategy goes, I am curious what your approach is if early in the first quarter you miss a PAT. How do you approach that as the game moves along?
SC: “I used to always go for 2 right away in this situation but my coaches convinced me that I don’t need to chase points. My son JT taught me that you shouldn’t chase points, especially early and it will usually work out. If you go for 2 and don’t get it, you end up further behind and are always chasing. It is better just to stay 1 point behind and it will work out. I may be the wrong guy to answer this though because in 31 years I have probably kicked 8 field goals total. In fact a few years ago we were in the Quarterfinals and we got down to the 14 yard line and all of the sudden it is 4th down. I yell “Field goal, Field goal” and no one moves…..one of my assistants sees this happening and yells “PAT, PAT” and 11 guys go running on to the field….they had no idea what a field goal was! Bottom line is I don’t chase the points.”
Best Drills Part I – Open Field Tackling Drill