Start of a New Year
With 2024 upon us, it is an exciting time to begin the process of shaping a new team, and establishing the expectations and chemistry that will be provide the foundation for the coming year!
Happy New Year! While coaching is not a profession that ever truly “ends”, I hope that you had a restful holiday and are heading into 2024 feeling rejuvenated and excited. This month’s Playbook features thoughts on:
how to collaborate with other coaches to learn and grow as a coach, including how I experienced this recently while attending the 2024 AFCA Convention in Nashville
tips for developing high school offensive linemen from renowned college OL coach Angus McClure
hitting the ground running as you begin offseason work with your team
and a new feature called Subscriber Spotlight found in the Breaking the Huddle section
I am very proud that we have over 200 subscribers, I would love to continue to build the distribution to any coaches that would enjoy reading it. I want to continue to shape the content to whatever would be most helpful to you all, so please email me at jmannionfootball@gmail.com with topics or questions you would like addressed. While a number of you are paid subscribers, I would encourage those that are free subscribers to consider the $5/ month subscription as we head into 2024. There is a subscription bar at the bottom of this edition!
JM
Working Together to Get Better
One of the things that I have found uniquely great about the coaching profession is the willingness of coaches to share best practices and be excellent resources to one another. Some of my best friends in the coaching profession are guys that I had fierce rivalries with on Friday nights, but whom I learned so much from over the years. Unlike many professions where trade secrets are closely guarded, I have found the football coaching fraternity to be one where our best resources may be our biggest rivals. I have also found it interesting that often times, the better the coach, the more willing they are to help you! If you are racking your brain about how to improve certain elements of your program or have questions about most any aspect of the game, your best resources most times are fellow coaches that have experienced or thought about the very same things.
I was honored to be one of five finalists for the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Power of Influence Award this past week at the national convention in Nashville. While I had known of the conference, I had never attended in person and was blown away at the level of interaction among the nearly 10,000 coaches in attendance. I saw first-hand the degree to which coaches can use each other as sounding boards to learn from one another. I was so humbled to be among the other finalists: Gerry Gallagher of New Jersey, Kurt Tippmann of Indiana, Lee Wiginton of Allen,Texas, and the award winner Rodney Saulsbery Sr. of Whitehaven, Tennessee. Being able to spend even a few hours together and talking football was inspiring and a great learning experience for me. It really reinforced how much available expertise we have collectively as a coaching profession. I believe these relationships that are built upon mutual respect are one of the things that makes coaching so great!
A few other experiences I had at the Convention include:
Attending a workshop with AFCA leaders from over a dozen states including: Ohio, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Alabama, Michigan, Georgia, Iowa, Texas, Tennessee and Washington. A wide range of topics were discussed including: things being done to continue to grow the number of both players and coaches, the impact of NIL on high school athletes and how to manage it within your state, the increasing role of non-scholastic entities in the recruiting process and how to keep the high school coach relevant in helping our players navigate college recruiting, and finally how to use our platform as high school football programs to help educate communities on critical issues like the opioid crisis that is hitting teens in so many communities. I was truly amazed to see first-hand coaches from all across the country having candid open conversation while striving to improve these issues.
Interacting with coaches from a wide-range of situations: from Lee Wiginton talking about how he runs a program at one of the biggest high schools in the country in Allen, TX with over 500 players in his program, to Coach Greg Souldourian of Plymouth, Michigan describe how his district has 3 high schools that share the same campus location in which students often take classes at the different schools yet they field 3 separate, highly competitive football programs.
In so many discussions with coaches throughout the convention, it was also incredibly validating to hear how many common beliefs and values coaches from all different places share and how similar so many successful programs truly are!
1 on 1 Conversation with 27 year college OL coach Angus McClure in which he shares his tips for coaching HS OL
Angus McClure is a highly respected college OL coach having spent the last 27 years with stints at Sacramento State, Nebraska, Buffalo, UCLA, Cal, and Nevada. He is highly regarded for his work with offensive linemen and also for being an all-around great guy. Angus and I are lifelong friends having played high school football and grown up together in San Rafael, CA together. I was excited to catch up with him at the AFCA Convention in Nashville and discuss OL play. Thank you Angus!
Question: If you were a HS beginning a new season and evaluating a new group of OL, what would you quickly identify to see who could help you out of a group of 10-12 guys?
AM: The most obvious would be the measurables, length is a big one for me. When I am recruiting, I always look from the ground up for lower body flexion…..can they bend their knees. Coach Muster (our old HS coach) used to say, “hitters are knee benders”, and that is still true today! Something as simple as having your guys perform an air squat with their hands out in front is a great place to start. I want to see them bend at their knees and hips and not bend at their waist to see if they have flexibility. I also always look for a motor, I want to see a kid that has high effort….do they always finish and run to the ball. I would start with identifying those things.
Question: What have you found to be the biggest keys to developing a player into a good OL?
AM: They need to be intrinsically motivated. You have to find out as a coach, how badly do they want to improve. Guys in the trenches have to want to be great and they need the mindset and commitment to do so. Sometimes players have so much on their mind that you have to specifically identify for them what to work on to provide them focus. If you build a good relationship and mentor them the right way, guys will work for you!
Question: As a HS coach, we sometimes have to sell a guy on playing OL. Any tips for that?
AM: I always tell them that OL is all about cohesion, synergy and that they will be part of the tightest group on the team. I sell that you will be part of a special group that doesn’t get statistics but are team guys. My last year at Nevada, we moved a walk-on player from DL to OL. At first, I don’t think he wanted to do it but he had size and length, and felt he was backed up on the DL depth chart. He came over and eventually made the 2 deep and beat out scholarship guys. OL can be a great path to getting yourself on the field. I would sell it as the ultimate team group.
Question: Do you have any tricks for teaching guys to get off the ball aggressively?
AM: I am a big harness guy and have been using harnesses my whole career. In fact I started making them when I was playing in college myself. Today there is all sorts of resistance equipment that can help. If you talk to my NFL guys, most want to take a harness with them when they go to the league. I ran into one of my players who played in the league for 7 years, when he was a rookie on the Chargers and we were in the Holiday Bowl. He comes to practice, goes straight to the harness bag and takes one. He claims it helped him to stay in the NFL. I stress that footwork and mechanics are really important. The flexion in your ankles, shin angles and rolling the knee are all critical.
Question: As an OL in college, is there something you would want high school coaches to know or teach? What might be 1 or 2 things that would really help you when a player came to your school?
AM: Football is a game of leverage and angles, and guys in the trenches (OL/DL) need to understand that. All of your drills need to apply to your scheme and be applicable to the game. I think sometimes coaches at all levels may do drills just to do drills. The drills need to apply directly to the game but you need to be creative and change it up. For example, use chutes or hoops….I am always trying to create new drills that apply but provide variation. I will put the hoop next to the RB Blaster and have our guys pull through the blaster! I like to play Jedi mind tricks on my players, we are working on the same fundamentals but just changing the presentation!
Thank you Angus for sharing your thoughts and wisdom!
Starting a New Year
I hope that you all have had some time to rest, decompress, and hopefully recharge after another season of football. I always found the holidays to be one of the most relaxing and football free times of the year. As the calendar now turns to 2024, it is not too early to begin laying the groundwork for what is to come as Spring football and the season begin to slowly creep closer. Below are some thoughts and points of focus as a new “season” begins:
As you begin off-season lifting or some on-field training, this is the first time to work as a new “team”. Seniors have departed, new players may be coming into your program and everyone is moving up a grade. Beginning to foster chemistry and developing the identity of a new group is something that begins to happen immediately. Establishing basics like always hustling and giving great effort as well attention to detail can begin to be re-introduced and reinforced immediately.
In nearly all my seasons as a coach, the leadership of the team has come from the senior class. The offseason program is the first time you will not have the seniors and it begins the process of having a new “senior class” begin to assume that role. It is a great time to cultivate new leaders and be purposeful in speaking to the senior class about leading by example and being positive and supportive of the younger players. You may be surprised to find certain players that you didn’t expect really take to the role and become huge assets to the group.
I believe it is also good practice to meet individually with all of your players in January and February to discuss their goals for next season. I ask each player to write down three goals they have for themselves and three goals they have for the team as we begin the process of heading to next season. I meet with each player to discuss their goals and I always find it interesting to see what they came up with. Not only do these meetings provide insight into each players mindset but it also gives you a chance to connect one-on-one with your players and strengthen your relationship with them. I find this important, especially with the younger players who I may not have had a ton on interaction with yet.
The last thing I would encourage you to do is to incorporate something “new” into your training regimen or drill work. Even if you are a creature of habit like myself and/or have a ultra-successful program, even a little new wrinkle or two can prevent the process from seeming like “same old, same old” to the returning players. Striving to find new methods to improve, no matter how small, serve to not only make your program better but keep your players on their toes as well!
I have always found January and February exciting as we can get back to work with renewed energy and optimism without the pressure of a Friday night game looming right in front of us. This part of the off season can be incredibly valuable to the development of your players and can build positive energy and momentum as you move into the coming months!
Breaking the Huddle
I would like to begin a new feature this edition called “Subscriber Spotlight” in which I highlight a subscriber to the Playbook. For this inaugural spotlight I would like to highlight:
Eric Mahlum – Liberty HS ( Hillsboro, OR ).
After an incredible playing career at the University of California and in the NFL with the Indianapolis Colts, Eric began a longtime career as a teacher and Head Football Coach at Liberty High School. Eric stepped down in December after leading the Liberty program since 2009. As outstanding a coach as Eric has been, he is even a better guy and respected by all! Congrats to Eric on a great run at Liberty and I know you will continue to be an influential member of the Oregon football community for years to come!