IFCA Clinic

I recently attended the Iowa Football Coaches Association annual coaches clinic this past weekend. There were many great speakers at this clinic. They talked about position drills, different offenses and defensive schemes. The spread offense was a hot topic.

The sessions that I went to dealt with Ideas to turn a program around. What I got out of the five sessions was that their key to success was building team unity. Each of these programs developed a mentor program for their players.

The most informative session was done by Jerry Shafrath, the head coach at Hampton-Dumont. He runs a program there called the sideline program. Here he had adult males mentoring the football players. They ate Thursday night meals with the team, and mentored the players through out the year. I was most touched when Jerry talked about a former player who was killed in Iraq. The entire town showed up for the wake( In the high school gym). The mentor for the boy who gave his life for his country came back to give the eulogy. He has developed a wonderful program and I plan to create something like this when I become a head coach again.

I was also approached by several of my colleagues asking me when I was going to apply to become a head coach again. I gave the typical answer. My wife is due in three weeks and after this football season I plan to start applying to become a head coach again. One athletic director even asked me if I would consider applying for a position at his school because his head coach will probably not be back after this next season.

I would love to be a head coach again. I am just hoping that I will be given a chance at a school that is close to where I am living now.

When the clinic was about to end, Kirk Ferenz, the head coach at the University of Iowa, spoke to all of the coaches. He is a great speaker and does alot to promote football and coaching in the state of Iowa. He gave a great speech.

As I was preparing to walk out of the clinic, the director of the clinic approached me about talking at the clinic for next year. He would like me to talk about my approach to the wing-t. Now I just need to come up with a jazzy name for my clinic speech. Do I called it the simplified wing-t?

If anyone has any suggestions I would be glad to listen.

Coach D


The road to Easy Street goes through the sewer. - John Madden

What to do about a program

I believe that organization is very important for any football coach. Especially if you are the head football coach.

A coach should have a playbook to give to his assistant coaches and players. He needs to coordinate with the lower levels what he would like them to run and how he would like them to run the plays. A coach should be in regular contact with his assistants, especially with his varsity staff.

A coach should make sure that his assistants are always striving for knowledge and to make sure that he and his assistants continue to be students of the game. I feel that this can be done by attending coaching clinics and reading up on coaching magazines.

A coach should also be organized when it comes to his players. He needs to be in regular contact with them. He should send out letters when events will take place and he should also give each player a player handbook. This covers expectations, discipline etc.

I know of a coach who is not very organized and is not a very good communicator. He tells his staff about meeting two or three days in advanced. He drops a bomb on his middle school staff that there will be a middle school clinic for players to help them learn the offense. He bothers to tell his coaches about it five days before it is to take place. He expects all of his coaches to be in attendance. No excuses excepted.

This same coach is unorganized when it comes to the season. He will change up his entire game plan from week to week. He will totally scrap his offense from one week to another. One week he will run everything out of a double tight, ace backfield. The next week he will run everything out of the I formation, The next week he will run things out of a double wing and run rocket sweeps. Talk about confusing for his coaches and players.

This same coach will not listen to any advice from his assistants. They will suggest something and he will dismiss it out of hand. No second thoughts.

Now this coach is the head coach and it is his program and he can run it the way he wants. His assistants are part of the program and should not second guess the head coach and should not talk about him behind his back.

I just hate to see what he is doing to this wonderful school and a once wonderful football program. The kids are confused, the coaches are made scape goats for not having success. Kids are even starting to refuse to play for him. Boosters are frustrated. The school board is even starting to get complaints from alumni, boosters and parents. The AD is real good buddies with this coach and I think that this is why he is still coaching there.

The present head coach has only had one winning season since taking over the helm.

The only reason why I bring this up is because it is my almamature. I hate to see it going in the direction that it is going. I started my coaching career there also under the former head coach who retired ten years ago. The present head coach use to be a friend of mine when we were on the staff together under the old head coach.

Do I over step the bounds of friendship? Do I even get involved?

I hope this rambling could possibly give someone second thoughts and incite on what it takes to try and be a successful head coach. I'm not saying I have all of the answers but I do have several pieces of the puzzle.

what do you do?

USD Team Football Camp

I don't know how many other coaches and their teams attend padded team camps during the summer, but I for one have been going with my present team to the University of South Dakota padded team camp.

This is a great opportunity for a team to go to. The kids go to clinics all day long to teach them to block and tackle and other position specific drills. This is not centered around any particular type of offensive or defensive scheme but are things to be able to help each player as an individual.

This is also a great opportunity for a team because you are able to work on your offense and defense during this camp. There is team competitions, such as king of the field, king of the dome, passing competition, lineman competitions, etc. It is a great way to measure the progress of your team against other teams from around the Midwest and even through out the country.

There are teams there from Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota,and Wisconsin. Plus it gives the coaches a chance to talk shop and to see who there hitters are going to be the next season.

What a better way to jump start your season.

How many other team camps are out there? Are they worth going to?

I can't wait for the season to start!!!!

Coach D

The 500 series - The Lead Iso

So Far we have covered the 200 series(buscksweep), 300 series(max protect of Buck sweep), 400 series(The Option) and now we will cover the 500 series(The Lead Iso).

The 500 series can be run out of serveral differnt formations. The only limitation is that you need to make sure you have two backs in the backfield. If you start out a single back all you have to do is make sure you motion into the backfield. I call this Fip(F in position) or Rip(R in position).

The line blocking is fairly simple also. It is baseblocking that sort of looks like zone blocking. However, if there is a man in the gap and it become difficult to block that man, than the lineman will make an "X" call or switch or what ever you want them to say. I shall demonstrate this in later diagrams.

When I discuss the 500 series I shall discuss it from a right or a Pro right position and I shall draw it up against different defenses.

Ramblings of Coach D

Every once in a while I feel like I need to ramble on about something. That is why I created my blog in the first place. What a better way for me to discuss football. It helps me from going crazy.

I don't want to turn my blog into a an advertisement for my playbook so I will only mention this once.

Everything you see on my blog is also in my playbook. There is also quite a bit more information in it. I cover philosophy, formations, each series (100's through 600's), The Jet and Rocket, Passing (3 step, 5step, and Play action)

I am willing to share my playbook and my knowledge with others. I have put quite a bit of time into making my playbook so I feel that I have to ask for some kind of monetary compensation.

What I have put together has come from my last 12 years of coaching the wing-T. It has evolved over the past several years and will probably continue to evolve. One way that I have found and really like to improve it is by talking to other coaches about it. That is why I have started up the Wing-T football forum. So please leave your comments there.(or leave them here on my blog)

I love to talk football and I can do that through my blog but now I am hoping that people will respond back in the forum. That is also why I have placed the poll wondering what people think about my blog.

I want to share my knowledge with others. I feel it a great honor when someone asks me for my advice or for when they want to have a copy of my playbook.

Just to show you a how my playbook is set up I have posted here what a typical page looks like.

I hope you have enjoyed what you have seen so far and I am thrilled that people are even listening to what I have to say.

End of commercial

Wing-T football discussion board Created

I have created a discussion to talk about wing-t football. Just click on the link for this post or click on the link on the main page.

Once you are on the discussion board you can browse the board. To be able to post you must become a member.

On the board you can discuss each of the series (200, 300, etc.), discuss passing, The Jet and Rocket sweeps, view videos, and even ask coach Dillon questions.

There is also a forum for the buying, selling, and trading of materials.

I hope you enjoy the message board.

http://wing-tfootball.proboards85.com/index.cgi

Coach D

400 series - The Option Pass

In this series I shall talk about how we work the pass out of the option look.

In the option there is a diving back and a trailing back while the QB works his way down the LOS (Line of Scrimmage) See below:

418 Keep

However when we run the option pass we need to make it look like we are running the option until the very last opportunity. We will than drop back and throw a pass.

In our passing model (700, 800 and 900 series) we would normally tag the receivers with the routes that they would run. However out of the option we limit the patterns that the receivers would run.

When we refer to the receivers I would refer to them by the outside/In. So the #1 play side receiver would be the farthest receiver on the outside on the play side. Backside #1 would be the outside receiver on the backside. #2 receiver play side or backside would be the next inside receiver.

We have the receivers memorize what each would run for the play. That way the rule is always the same no matter what formation we would run out of. This shall be demonstrated later.

The rules are as follows:

PS #1 - Out

PS #2 - Flag

PS #3 - Post/Flag

BS #1 - Under

BS #2 - Post

BS #3 - Seam

If we are running the 418 option Pass out of a right formation the play would look like the following. (Remember that running the ball is always an option for the QB)

We can also run the same play out of a number of different formations. Here are a couple of examples:

Power Left 418 option pass

Pro Right 418 option pass

Red Rip 418 option pass

Right Slot 418 Option Pass

As you can see we can run this play out of many different formations. This holds true for all of the plays in our playbook. This makes it look like we are a lot more complicated than we really are. It will also force defences to try and prepare for so many different looks.

Even though I have mentioned so many different series already, I believe that if you master a few plays and run them out of a number of different formations you van still be very effective and win ball games. I have tried to simplify things for my players and coaches so that we can get down to the business of perfecting plays and doing what we love. PLAYING FOOTBALL

Coach D

Confidence doesn't come out of nowhere. It's a result of something... hours and days and weeks and years of constant work and dedication. - ROGER STAUBACH