MICHIGAN HIGH

SCHOOL FOOTBALL
COACHES
ASSOCIATION’s
WINTER CLINIC 2008

January 17th-19th Battle Creek, Michigan

 Frank Beamer- Special Teams and Philosophy

• Blocking Punts

o If right footed kicker, when coming at him, need to shift hands to left

• Practice Schedule

Monday- 1st Offense vs. 1st Defense; odd plays, weird formations or motions, trics

Tuesday- Punt Block vs. 1st team defense

Field goal vs. 1st defense

Wednesday- Punt block drill 7 minutes

o Special teams odd situations

o Field Goal Block

o Onside Kick Prevent (will practice this twice a week

o Punt vs. 1st Defense

Thursday- Kick Return 10 minutes

o Kickoff Half Line 10 minutes

o Punt Period (unusual, fakes etc) 5 minutes

o Team offense, at the end work on FGs

Friday- 1st Offense vs. Scout D 30 minutes

o 1st Defense vs. Scout Offense 30 minutes

o Situational 1st Offense vs. 1st Defense

- Never will make a decision without consulting with every coach

- I will never embarrass a player in front of the team unless it is loafing

- Practice schedule will never change

- “Positive Plays” DVD every Friday after dinner best 10 Offensive, 10 Defensive, 10 Special Teams
plays from previous game

- Loyalty- must establish importantance of loyalty from/to coaches and plays alike

- Distrust between coach/coach, player/player, coach/player is the number 1 killer of teams

- Everydrill stops and starts with a whistle, trains players to play to the whistle

- Elect players to be captains in the spring so they can lead the team throughout the summer

- Only have rules you can enforce, Everything we say, we will follow through

- Only dress those people who have a chance to play. Dressing freshmen, or young guys who will never
see the field can lead to disrtraction and lack of focus

- Have special Honor Roll for Players with good grades, Reward them for the hard work they put in the
classroom

- Players must know what their reputation is:

- green: dependable, responsible, get the job done, no study table

- yellow: careful, not quite there

- red: high risk, meet more than weekly with advisors, mandatory study hall

o CHAMPIONS CLUB:

Requirments:

o No discipline problems

o Must be endorsed by position coach, Head Coach, Academic Advisor, and S & C Coach

o Must have good grades

o Staff then votes on who is inducted

o Dinner held in the spring to honor new inductees

o Be productive. Have a plan and get to work. The number of hours spent working in a office
does not matter compared to how much work you have to be done.
 o Lastly, the responsible of our staff are clearly defined. Why ? So when something goes wrong
we know exactly who to go talk to.

Butch Jones (Head Coach) and Mike Bajakian (OC) – CMU Offense and Team Philosophy

o Senior Day Summer Camp- Sunday June 22

o The best coaches are the ones who utilize their talent

o If you have great chemistry, you will be successful

o Encourages players and coaches to take pride in their position

o Coaches need to ask themselves:

What defines your program ?

What do you do well and what do you do poorly ?

What defines you as a coach ?

Figure it out and practice it

o Competition is important

o Make group and team drills as competitive as possible

o People

-it is a peoples business

- During 2-a-days, during lunch, he will call on random players to stand up and tell about another chosen player.
He has found this increases team chemistry a lot

- X and Os don’t win the games, people do

o Character

o Head coaches must be able to make split second decisions correctly

o Has a Team Circle. It is a board on the lockeroom wall of a circle. Inside the circle is everyone of the
players names. Players names can be moved out of the circle for various things like missing class, late
to practice. Every player always knows where they stand with the coaching staff.

o Loyalty- starts with the coaching staff and works on down

o Trust

o Number 1 in dysfunctional teams is lack of trust

o Stick to your word no matter what

o Making things fun starts trust

o Create a Championship Culture

o T-shirts

o Do everything First Class (From travel attire to team dinners)

o Not allowed to wear any other colors besides team colors when taking part in any football activity

o Student of the Week awards

o Community Service Awards

o Various advice

- Don’t develop a team, develop an entire program

- Make friends with the important people in your community (police, doctors, lawyers, teachers,
advisors etc)
 - When grading film, the first thing he looks for is loafs, and those players who are loafing will pay for
it

- The missing ingredient in losing football teams is everyone playing hard

- Find a way to motivate your players every single day Stay the course, don’t deviate when adversity
strikes. All players and coaches want consistency.

- Ask yourself, do your players live toughness or just play hard in practice ?

o Never be complacent, Ask yourself, What do you do that makes you better than someone else who is
wanting your job ?

o Chippewa Olympics

o Team is broken down into 9-10 teams. Each coach is assigned to one team

o Teams receive points based on grades, practice, class attendance, off the field behavior, etc.

o Losing team has extra running

o This has been a great motivator that is used year round

o Team Building activities

o Kickball tornament

o Team BBQ

o Team dinner and after dinner, in the lockeroom, he has 5 seniors stand up and talk about what football
means to them and advice for younger players. You must make the lockeroom a special place that only
those special individuals may enter.

o Themes per weak

o One week is “Burning the ship”, referring to the story of Spartans who after getting off the ship to
battle, burnt their ships so they would have no other choice but to fight till the end.

o “Ship Can” . Had all the players write down an excuse to why they could not beat this certain
opponent. Then they would set the can on fire burning their excuses.

o 5 Ingredients to a team

1. Having an atmosphere of trust and respect

 2. Create an atmosphere that benefits the individuals, not just you

3. Having players and coaches of high character

4. A system- being patient with what you believe in

5. Good people- identify the givers, get rid of the only-takers

Mike Bajakian (OC) – CMU Offense

Philosophy:

o Not a finesse offense full of gadgets or trick players

o Foundation of this offense is toughness

o Believes “well conditioned athletes defeat tired talent”

o Basic Elements of the CMU Spread Offense:

o Force the defense to defend the entire field

1. Width- by formations, lateral pass game,

2. Depth of Field- attacking deep field, short crossing patterns and long deep passes

o Play with multiple tempos

1. Fast

2. Faster

3. No Huddle

o The Offense

1. Make the QB a dual threat with both the run and the pass

2. Make the offense simple, but unpredictable

3. Execute your base plays to perfection

- “Do what we do” meaning don’t change your philosophy based on the talent level of the
opposition

4. Make the defense defend all of your skilled players

5. Keep it as simple as possible for the linemen

 o The CMU Pass Game

1. Keep it simple

- Screens, Bubble Screen, Slip Screen, Jailbreak Screen

- Play Action, Naked bootleg

- Sprint Out

- Quick Game

- 5, 7 step Dropback game

2. Spacing (Route Distribution)

3. Timing

- Route depth

- QB Drop

4. Completeion Average per route and call

o DROPBACK PASSING

Pivot Concept

- Tagged Player- Runs Pivot route (example X Pivot)

- Next Receiver outside- runs 12 yard in

- Any receiver outside of in route- Vertical

-Any receiver inside pivot on same side- Middle of the field

- 1st Inside WR opposite of tagged player- 12 yards, turn back, if CB is even with you or behind, run verticals, if he
is ahead of you, turn back and look for ball immediately

-RB,Checks weak side edge, then runs to flats Example of Pivot route
In Concept (FYI They call the in route, a DIG, however I call the route In)

- Tagged receiver runs 12 yard In route

- Any WR outside in, runs 5 yard in route

- Any WR inside tag, runs verticals

Various Advice:

- Believes pass concepts are much easier to practice in limited amounts of time. Key is to
find names that players can relate to.

Holt High School (MI) Offensive Staff- Outside Zone, Counter Trey, Trey Pass
Basis and Fundamentals of the Offense:

- Great communication needed between lineman

- Multiple Formations- Same plays

- Can run same player under center or out of the shotgun

- Easy adjustments; i.e. 8 in the box, check to pass

Why does it work ?

- Coaches and players practice it from the lowest level (grade school) to varsity

- “If you stop this, we have that” philosophy

Basic Premise:

- OZ allows Offensive Line to initially double team as many Defensive Lineman as

possible on the snap of the ball

- Double team = Vertical Push

- During this push phase the L.O.S. will effectively be turned into a negative 30 degrees
(example below: )

- When executing 1st level blocks, we are getting some push and double teams are forming

1st Priority- Securing first level

- QB Snaps an Attempts to reach the intersection of a line between the QB and outside foot
of the playside tackle

- RB’s first step is a bucket step, aiming towards his spot

- As the RB approaches his spot, he scans for opposite color jersey and makes his cut
decision off of that

Combos and Alignment:

- Four possible combos; BSG/CENTER, CENTER/PSG, PSG/PST, PST/TE

- Most important advice to OL: Stay on your blocking “track”

- Paint tracks on grass when practicing

- Creates instant depth (majority, all the same steps despite position)

- Stance: earhole of helmet should be even with center’s hip pad

 - If a Fullback is in the game, use him to block the edge, either right from stance or using
motion

- Wide outs run at closet DB, break down and block aggressively

- Splits: 6” to 1’depending on speed of particular O.L.

- Coaches point: you will have to practice over and over not getting vertical too soon on
offensive lineman’s blocking “track”

Zone Drills:

- 2 Hit drill; proper fit and punch; coaching point- footwork is most important

- Practice blocking in space at least twice a week

Key Terms:

- Seams: block needs to be made in zone scheme with shoulders slightly off parallel to
L.O.S. You want to have a 30 to 45 degree angle.

- Lineman are responsible for everything inside your nose to the inside guy’s next to you
ribs

- Drill steps every day despite opponent, it will pay off

- Measuring: colliding with the blocker on your 30-45 degree angle without going after
him

- Steps: reach, upfield, bucket, side (6 inch lateral step)

Various Advice:

- 80 % of bad plays happen before the nap (i.e. stance, first 2-3 steps, pad level)

- Work on 2 different schemes a day

- Multiple groups going 1 after another

- Work 1s vs. 1s, and then 2 vs. 2s if possible

- When DL begins to chop block, throw the ball

- Does a lot of group work; half line, full line

- Try to make plays look alike as much as possible

- Players receive cut up DVD instead of viewing opponent as a team, Each position group
receives notes from their position coach

- Likes to include Cut ups of last year’s game vs. opponent (if applicable), wants team to
know what they did well and what they did poorly versus team
 - Running Backs must have patience, if there is no holes at first, get close to the OL and
find something, they must also be tough and have vision

- Lineman will watch more film than any other personnel group, often will receive 10-15
play dvd of weeks work of practices for self evaluation

- Teach lineman zone steps on a board that’s on a 45 degree angle

- Big advocate of filming practices. Believes kids learn better when they see there mistakes
from practice on film

Practice Schedule:

Monday- Low intensity, chalk talk, walk through

Tuesday- Rehearse; put players in right position and tell scout defense what you are doing

Wednesday- Full go practice

Thursday- Low intensity, more mental workout. Test your players both on the field and on the board. On the board
they will test each other. Make competition where it is Skills vs. Bigs taking turns calling each other out to draw up
assignments on certain plays.

Friday- Payday

Other things to consider using with your zone offense:

- Unbalanced lines

- Check with me’s

- False pulls

- Motions and Shifts

- Crazy formations then shift to original formation

- Balanced sets

How to stop the Zone:

- Dominate the edge

- Destroy combo blocks

- Causing multiple pile ups

- Overload blitzes

- Twists

Summer Conditioning:

- Big tire flips

 - A lot of medicine ball traing

- Big advocate of bench pressing for lineman

- Takes lineman to G.V.S.U. Midwest Lineman’s camp in July

Coach Moriarity, Carmel HS, 5A Indiana State Champions “WVU Offense at HS Level”

Note: Coach Moriarity had 2 separate sessions on this day. The first session covered the zone read and speed option. The second session covers
the Bubble and Reverses. I could only attend the 2nd session so if anyone has notes from he first session I would greatly appreciate it

- If you don’t honor the bubble when were running the zone read, we are going to throw it
everytime

- 1s vs. 1s scrimmage every Tuesday, creates a competitive atmosphere

o Bubble Screen:

- 60 to 1 , Practice to Game ratio

- Defenses do not honor it enough

 - Anytime the RB has to slow down, it usually doesn’t work

- Practice it with a center every single time

- WRs need to be good blockers

- 2 Most Important Things: Pass Blocking and good Center-QB Exchange

Perimeter Drill: Run Zone Read over and over

o Sprint Out Pass

- OL must sell zone play

- RB fake, FB goes to the flats

o Various Philosophy and information

- Staff consists of himself, 8 paid assistants, and 4 paid freshmen coaches

- Lifting starts at 6am.. Why ? because there is no conflicts or other sports going on at that
time

- Create a tradition of high expectations

- Freshmen lift M-W-F at 6:15AM for more one on one coaching

o Year Round Program

- Lifting contests in off season

- Hall of Fame board in weight room

- Team Competitions

- Speed Development camp

- Youth camp with players running drills

- Lineman-Only camp

- Team Camp
 Elliot Uzelac, St Joeseph HS MI- Turning a Program Around

o Make everything an opponent:

- The bar in the weight room is an opponent

- Your English test is an opp.

- Develop a competitors attitude

o If you don’t lift, you don’t play

- By showing up and working hard in the off season, gains trust

- School wide rule: if you play a sport, you are required to lift at least twice a week

- Freshman and 8th graders lift separately so they receive more individual attention

- In Season Schedule: Monday-Wednesday-Saturday

- In Season: Monday-Wednesday lifting sessions are apart of a conditioning class offered

at the school for all athletes

- Sundays; staff meets and reviews previous game film then next games opposition film

o Practice Schedule and Philosophy

- High Tempo Practice: 2 plays a minute, Starters run 5 consecutive plays, then backups
come in and run 4 consecutive and so on

- Keeps file of practice schedules for next season use

- Practice Attitude: jog from drill to drill, coaches are enthusiastic , and everyone stays
moving

- Weekly Awards: Offense, Defense, Special Teams, Scout Team

- Monday: Offense- 90 minutes Defense-35 minutes

- Tuesday: Offense- 35 minutes Defense 90

 - Wednesday: 50/50

o Coach Positively

- No distractions

- Don’t change routine

- Have senior meetings

- Win or lose, back to business Saturday morning

Muskegeon Oakridge HS (MI) Coaching Staff- Leadership

o Mentor Everyone, not just the starters

-treat your 3rd stringers the same as your starters

o Oakridge Eagles Mentoring Program: Varsity players are paired up with a local elementary school
student and spend a hour with their assigned student to help with school work.

o Community Carnival- Held in the gym. Players sign up for 2 hour shifts and help set up the carnival

o Varsity players assigned a elementary school classroom and come once a week to read a book
o Habitat for Humanity- Entire team spends a day helping build a home for Habitat for Humanity

o Adopt a Highway Program- Team “adopts” a mile stretch of a local highway and clean it 3 times a
year

o Youth Football Camp- 2nd-5th graders. Players run the drills. Kids are broken down into “teams” and
the teams then rotate to drills. At the end of the camp these teams are seated with the varsity football
team and have their picture taken

o Special Olympics- players help out at Special Olympics

o Salvation Army- volunteer at Christmas time ringing bells

o Human Society- help raise money

o Captains are required to read Leadership Principles by John C Maxwell

o Also recommends Leadership 101 by John Maxwell

Craig Rundle, Head Coach at Albion College- 2 Minute Offense

2 Minute Plays

1. Personnel

- Most common 4 WR 1 Back

2. How many formations will you use ?

3. How many protections ?

- Ideal would be 1 for 5 step, 1 for 3 step

4. Special Situations

- Sideline (get out of bounds)

- Running game

- Screens

- Changing launch point

- Red zone

- Goal line

- Clock play

- Positioning play (to set up ideal field goal position)

- Last plays of game at 50, 25, 10

- Hail Mary

5. Other situations

- Need a TD

- Need a FG

- Need 2 scores

- Transition from clock offense to bleeding the clock

- End half (believes in always treating as Needing a FG)

6. Managing Situations

- Info gathering: how many time outs, what do we need

Formula for the Drive:

- Each play takes 10 seconds

- Chunks=gain 20 yards (50% completion rate)

 - Controls= gains 10 yards (80/90 % completion rate)

- Need about 18 seconds to kick a FG without any timeouts

- Don’t throw out route to opposite of QBs throwing arm

Favorite quick passes out of 2X2:

1. 7 yard Slant, 5 yard slant, verticals, hitch

2. Out read, 12 yard hitch, 12 yard hitch, 10 yard out

3. Smash; Arrow in, 15 yard flag, 15 yard post, arrow in (crossing pattern)

Ingredients of Team Spirit:

- Mutual respect

- Communication

- Closeness

- Trust

- Acceptance

- Encouragement

- A study done by Albion College, studying NHL teams discovered that there was a strong
link between team unity and team accomplishments

- Recommended a book named Influencer

What you must do to get them to do what they don’t want to:

1. They must feel like they have the ability

2. It has to be “worth it” to them

3. Don’t tell them what to do, but show them

 Rich Rodriguez, Head Coach at University of Michigan Offense and Philosophy

o Why be a No Huddle Offense ?

- Controls tempo not knowing when you will snap (snap is on a body movement)

- Eliminates most disguises like stemming by DL

- Gives time to coaches to change the play if needed

- Gives you more practice reps. (At WVU they did 12 plays in 5 minutes)

- Makes conditioning a factor earlier in games

- Puts your athletes out in space

- Systems are overrated. Getting your players to play fast (by mentally knowing) is the
most important thing.

o Why the Shotgun ?

- Gives the QB time to see the whole field

 - Gives the QB good vision

- Gives offenses extra numbers in the run game

o Various Advice:

- Advantage: Know when and where you’re going

- Coaches teach to the lowest denominator

- Encourage them to ask questions in practice

o A typical game plan includes:

-Down and distance Middle pass routes

4 minute plays Deep Pas routes

2 minute plats 2 point plays

Tricks Reverses

Best pass and runs Screens

Inside Run Play Actions,

Options, Naked, Bootlegs

Quick Pass game routes

On the back of his call sheet he has an answer sheet, where he has an answer for every possible defensive
move:

- Bear - Tampa 2

- Odd front - Cov 2 invert robber

- Slant and angles - Run throws LBs

- Cover 1 press - Wave Cov 3

- Cover 4 - DE/LB exchange trying to

mess up zone read
- Cover 8
- Safety Run Support
- Corner biting quick game
- Uncovered slots
- Cov 2
- Change in cadences
 - Twists - Penetrating Ends

- Cov 0 man - Wide, Tight DE’s

- Soft DL - Cov 3 Hard

Offensive Philosophy:

1. Numbers = Leverage

2. Angles- Point of attack

3. Grass= go to the grass with audibles

Spring Practice Dates:

March 15, 18, 20, 21, 22, 25, 27, 28

April 1, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10, 12

Call Football Office to Confirm Times and Dates: 734-763-4422

High School 7 on 7 tornament: June 20-21 @ Univ. of Michigan Practice Facility

High School Individual Camp- June 15-18th 2008

High School Coaches Clinic Thursday April 3rd at 3:00pm – Saturday April 5th