Last month, we talked about our three weapons (eyes, hands, and feet) that we teach each player as a part of our defense at the University of Sioux Falls. This…
Developing Toughness Through Strongman Training/ Gut Check Workouts
Toughness is a characteristic that is highly desirable in football players. The ability to endure, adapt and overcome is a trait that allows teams and players to push themselves beyond…
Kicking Scrimmage – Practicing Special Teams, Third Down Offense, and The Free Kick
Years ago I heard now retired coach Wally Hood present a clinic on the kicking scrimmage. This special teams focused scrimmage format allowed a team to work all phases of…
Starting the Season: Firsts Things first – Remembering What is Important
We started a ceremony here a few years ago to start our pre-season. The purpose of the ceremony was to help us focus on the things that are most…
42 Rules for Getting Better at Practice
Practice. How do you use it? How do your players view it? Hopefully, they don’t disparage it like Allen Iverson did in this famous interview. As coaches, we understand the…
3 Quick Drills for LBs – Man Coverage
This month, in keeping with the theme of my last few posts, I’d like to share three quick drills I use to work on man coverage with my linebackers. This…
A Variation of “The Pit” in Daily D-line Drills
In my May article in American Football Monthly, I outlined the everyday drills I use to prepare my d-linemen to read offensive blocks. I sometimes find that they do…
Spread Single-Wing Offense: Basic QB Run Plays
Traditionally, I have always been a Spread Wing-T offensive guy incorporating both versions of the two most powerful offenses on the high school level, the Spread and Wing-T offenses. However,…
Oldie But a Goodie
Summer is a great time to go through old materials in preparation for the fall. July is my month to work on projects and reference manuals from the past while…
Linebacker Fundamentals – Day 2
Day one we taught the fundamentals of alignment, stance, read step, reacting to run/pass, proper angles, and zone drops. Day two we want to review the fundamentals you taught on…