Shallow Cross: WHY IS HE ALWAYS OPEN???

I have a few pass concepts that I'm REALLY into and want to use as a base for an offense, namely Stick, Snag, and Shallow.  There's others that are necessary like 4 Verts, but those 3 are the cats pajamas for me.  The one I'm going to cover in here is Shallow, aka Shallow Cross, aka NCAA concept (because everyone in the NCAA runs it) shown here (image from Bruce Eien's page):

The basic gist of Shallow is as follows: there will always be a post route, a dig/hunt route, and a shallow crosser than runs right behind the heels of the defensive linemen at about 2-3 yds depth.  From there, you can tag it up in about a thousand different ways in order to accomplish what you want.  While doodling/performing thought experiments, I eventually realized that the most important thing is actually limiting how many tags I would want because SO MANY things can work off of this.

The first thing that I wanted to do was establish basic rules for the concept before branching out into tags and these are what I settled on:
1-Tagged receiver runs the Shallow.  Typically this is either a slot or a TE, but can be an outside receiver, too.
2-Inside receiver opposite the Shallow runs the Dig/Hunt.
3-Outside receiver on the Shallow side runs a Fade.
4-Outside receiver opposite the Shallow side runs a Post.
5-RB runs a Shoot to the same side as the Shallow.  Can be a check-release if you want it.

From there, there's certain tags that I prefer, the foremost being "Drive", where you get the Dig and Shallow coming from the same side, preferably with the Dig being run by the inside receiver like the Levels concept that Peyton Manning rode to his HOF status.

"Drive"

What I like about the Drive concept is that it creates a nice high/low read on the H/C defender while also attacking vertically on the opposite side of the formation.

   Next up is "Curl", which simply changes the Fade to a Curl route and adds a nice Curl/Flat concept on the backside.  I'm actually contemplating the potential of never installing Curl/Flat as it's own concept and instead just using this tag creatively when I want to run Curl/Flat.

"Curl"

This one is lifted directly from Chris Brown and Bobby Petrino by extension, I'm just calling it Wheel.  Wheel changes the RB's shoot route towards the Shallow into a Wheel in the same direction as the Shallow.  The purpose of the Wheel is to clear out a Flat defender who's lurking for the Shallow or punish a Corner who's jumping onto the Post route.

"Wheel"

   Scissors is a secondary tag off of Drive where your Post and Fade routes perform a quick Switch ala the Run N Shoot concept, but with a hard-set Post and Fade instead of the RNS read-as-you-go.  I'd love this for Quarters coverage in particular because I'm doubting the defense's ability to handle the route exchange.

"Switch"

   As you can see, Shallow is a terrifically variable and flexible concept and I'm just barely scratching the surface of the play.  Hope I presented a good case for it's inclusion in any offense, it's a stone cold lock to be in mine.


Further Reading/Viewing:
Chris Brown's excellent article on Bobby Petrino's Shallow Cross
Brophy's Video Library comes through yet again: Noel Mazzone explains Shallow

Tackling Circuits: My stance

This is inspired by a recent discussion on Coach Huey about tackling circuits and their place in defensive practice plans, etc.

Background: 
I was a heavy, heavy tackling circuit/turnover circuit disciple in 2009, I really was.  We did both every week, usually one on Monday and one on Wednesday.  We created a lot of turnovers, something like ~2.5/game and I really felt that they were worth while.  We made a lot of tackles, which is to be expected, but I wasn't happy with our tackling, which surprised me because we spent SO MUCH time on tackling circuits.  I mean, 15m/week for something like 15 weeks adds up to about 3 1/2-4 hours of time JUST tackling.  My best tackling LB was a guy that I coached for 3 months.  My worst tackling LB was a guy I'd coached for 3 years.  Evidently, I'm a shitty coach.

Review our film from that season, I noticed some stuff that wasn't necessarily clear to me during the season.  First, most of our turnovers were the result of athletic interceptions or gang tackling.  We had two fumbles forced, one recovered by the same kid who had a TERRIFIC tomahawk move from behind, but that was probably the best example of practice time carrying over into game time.  Almost all of our fumble recoveries were the result of hustle, violence, and fumble recovery skills (which we did work).  Almost all of our interceptions were the result of pressure, vision of the QB, and skilled athletes with a shitty coach.

Reviewing our tackling, I noticed a few things.  The biggest thing that came to me was that no two guys on our defense really tackled alike.  The reason why?  No two coaches on our defense taught tackling alike.  We were working tackling all season, but everyone's message was SLIGHTLY off.  The next biggest thing was that our guys needed to get their asses into the weight room.  That was outside my jurisdiction, so to speak, but it's 100% something I believe very strongly in.

So, after this ordeal of self-reflection, I came to the conclusion that I didn't really care to use practice time to work on turnovers and I didn't necessarily like tackling circuits as much.

That Said...
I think tackling circuits are valuable because you CAN use them to teach fundamental skills rapidly, with lots of repetitions, and do it often.  I'll follow that up by saying that I think you really need to be careful about how you administer your tackling circuits.

Tackling circuits should be:
1-Reflective.  You should be focused on improving the aspects of tackling that you're not very good at and your drills should show that you've reflected on how to target those precise aspects.  If your kids can't angle tackle very well, then you should be working angle tackling in your circuits.
2-Corrective.  Don't let bad reps stay bad reps.  Force them to do the drill again, and again, and again until they do it right.  Then move on to the next kid.  If only 3 kids get reps, then you can safely say that next time that's 3 less kids you have to coach.  But force them to have a successful effort.
3-Inclusive. I fucking hate kids standing in line.  Sometimes it's necessary for their recovery between reps, but if you're not pushing their cardio, why have lines?  Work as many kids as possible while still giving good coaching.
4-Short.  15min, TOPS.  Time is precious, budget it appropriately.

The school I coached at last year used tackling circuits on every defensive day and we got nothing out of it because the DC had us run the same 4 drills with very little correction going on, lots of standing in line, and poorly budgeted time.  You can imagine how I felt about it.

(I'd like to point out that I followed a very strict "direct answers to direct questions only" rule because I was more or less laying low last season and I didn't want to be that coach that was being overly critical when he wasn't going to be a long-term member of the staff.  Probably not the best approach I could've taken, but I didn't want the DC to go through an experience similar to the BS I went through in 2011.)

Anyways!...  I like tackling circuits for lower level teams (JV/Frosh) because you can use them to enforce good mechanical skills in players without the experience base necessary to tackle well, but I'm not so crazy about them at the varsity level.  To me, at the varsity level there's DL tackling and LB/DB tackling and the two are only somewhat related.  So, having everyone do the same drills all the time is inefficient and ultimately counter productive.  Just my stance on the matter.

Summary
Tackling circuits are good if you coach them well, but they suck if you don't.  Teach tackling in a uniform fashion, coach up hustle to the ball and aggression, good things will follow.

BUY THIS BOOK!

First things first:
Link to Apple Store

Next:
What Bdud had to say about it...

To follow up:
Have you bought it yet?

My thoughts:
   I'm super in love with Coach Grabowski's offense at Baldwin Wallace.  It's EXACTLY what I would like to run as a potential HC/OC.  Pistol, 11/12 personnel, Downhill run and playaction focus, concept carryover galore.  It's like he read my mind, then said, "This guy is clearly an idiot, it should be done this way" and then did it.
   For all of that fanboy-ism, I think EVERYONE (note: that's everyone with an iPad since it's iBooks only) should buy this book because of this: it's the best executed example of how to teach an offense to ANYONE I've ever seen.  The book describes the concepts, includes Keynote (Apple version of PowerPoint) presentations of coaching points and key ideas, shows diagrams of the plays, then shows film of the plays themselves.  As coaches, we should aspire to have the most efficient ways to install/teach our offenses or defenses and make sure that our players understand and comprehend what we're trying to get them to do.
   If you want to approach it as a educator, this is a concrete example of appealing to multiple learning styles, especially if you are talking to them as you go through everything, which you will be.  If you have them take their own notes, then you're hitting another learning style.  If you then have an on-field walk-through as your pre-practice, you're hitting another.  I'll defy you to find a better way to present information to kids in a way that they will have stronger recall or understanding, especially when dealing with time constraints like we all have.
   So, again, this book is an amazing example of how to teach ANYTHING to our players.  Plus it's pretty bitchin' technology.  Further reading on Coach Grabowski: Coach Grab on AFM's Site.

BUY THE DAMN BOOK ALREADY.

Strength and Conditioning - Big picture

The head guy at my alma mater is someone who's on a different level compared to most folks.  He's something else, he really is.  The football program there is undefeated in league the last two years, with only one league loss in the last three, three playoff appearances in a row including a run to the finals last season (which was supposed to be a rebuilding year), and is looking at winning his 6th section championship sometime in the next two years as his rising Jr class is STACKED with talent, several of whom got significant varsity playing time as sophomores.

How has he done this?  It's hard to point to any one thing, honestly.  He brought the Wing-T with him and is running for 400+ yards a game with it.  He has ~40 kids on the team at all three levels of the program.  He works his players as hard as anyone else in practice and demands accountability from them like no one else I've ever seen.  That said, in my opinion, the biggest impact on the program has been the change in the weight program.

His workout style is different from anything I've seen in a football program.  They do Upper Body on Monday, Lower on Tues, Core on Wednesday, Olympics on Thursday, Shoulders/Competitive Games on Friday.  They rotate three times through eight different exercises with minimal rest in between.  It's essentially a body building split with superset/circuit training infused with lots of stability exercises.  Explaining it doesn't do it justice, however.  It's organized chaos with hustle, energy, and lots and lots of sweat.  If an overweight kid has a half decent work ethic, the weight melts off his body and his body composition completely changes after a year of going through the weight program.

Recently on Coach Huey I asked about this program and if I was missing something compared to the traditional style workouts that I'd seen other people using.  The resounding response I got was this: the results being achieved were because of the kids committing to working their asses off, his ability to drive them to work said asses off, and teenage physiology being fantastic for building muscle/losing weight.

So if this fairly unique workout style isn't the key, then, what do we learn from this?

1-What you do isn't as important as how you do it.  Countless hours are spent debating what we should/shouldn't be doing in the weight room, but really, as long as your program is organized and safe and your kids are working hard, you'll get good results.

2-Change your lifts up, avoid settling into a routine.  One of the best things that Coach B does is he's constantly having them do new and different exercises, which helps keep things fresh and therefore keeps the energy/enthusiasm good because the kids never know what's coming.

2a-Corollary: Don't necessarily do new/weird stuff just for the sake of doing it.  One way to incorporate point #2 is to have a PROGRESSION of exercises to develop their abilities, as well as keep things fresh.

3-Get bodies in the weight room.  You don't know who you're helping when they start coming in and you don't know how you're helping them.  Some kids need football more than football needs them and some kids look like Jane but lift like Tarzan (and vice versa).  Football teams need depth and they need to have second tier players (not your stars, but not your scrubs) who are strong, healthy, and mobile athletes.  I truly believe that the team with the better second tier players will usually come out triumphant.

4-Incorporate competitive games/drills during the off season.  You'll learn about your players by putting them in new/different settings.  You'll see who you can count on, who you can't, who your winners are, and who is a competitor.  Just make something up, it doesn't nearly matter as much as having them get after each other.


Bottom line: get them in the weight room, push them hard in an organized program, keep things fresh, keep it fun.

Taking a new direction

When I started writing this thing, I didn't really know what I wanted to do with it beyond just writing stuff about football. Without much of a direction, I had a hard time creating content and it eventually just fell by the wayside.

 So I'm changing the direction a bit and caring less about exactly what I write here. Instead of trying to do Chris Brown or Brophy style analysis articles, I'm going to be using this to take ideas I have about how I want to run a program and put them all in one place. So, I'm talking offense, defense, S&C, whatever comes to mind. In reading this, I'm hoping that you will find your own ideas and develop your own thoughts on things. God willing, you'll enjoy it, too.

 If not, well...