Category Archives: Game Planning

Defensive Game Planning – Film Breakdown and the Formation Analysis

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I had a question after yesterdays post (Defensive Game Planning – Weekly Workflow) about the timeline we used to disseminate the scouting report information to our players.  Let me take a moment to discuss this.

When we first began this process of defensive game planning, we had ALL of the scouting report information ready to be handed out on our initial meeting on Monday afternoon.  We eventually changed our thinking on this, and began only distributing the printed information for the situations that we were focusing on for that day.  We provided players with a “Game Plan Folder” and gave them the following printed information at morning meetings each of these days.

Monday

  • Goals
  • Outlook
  • Player Profile
  • Analysis

Tuesday

  • 1st Down
  • 2nd Down
  • 3rd and Short
  • Coverage
  • Pass Routes

Wednesday

  • 3rd Medium
  • 3rd Long
  • XL
  • Goal Line

Thursday

  • Front/ Stunt
  • Wrist Band
  • Gadget

Friday

  • Position Group Reminders
  • Position Group Test

We found this to be more effective for several reasons:

  • They received information daily, in smaller bites, which made it easier to digest.
  • It focused the meeting attention and discussion on the emphasis for that day.
  • It allowed us as coaches to get a better handle on the information before delivering it to the players.  We also found we had less changes than when we tried to have everything ready at our Monday meeting.
  • I will have a post at the end of this series with ideas on how to “flip” ( see post Flipping the Practice Field) the meeting time with your athletes.  I think distributing in small chunks lends itself to “flipping” your meeting time.

The film breakdown process we used was not revolutionary and is probably the same procedures you all use in your program.  We had, as most coaches do today, access to all the game film on our upcoming opponent that we wanted to use.  We used the following criteria to determine what games to break down and enter in our computer analysis.

  • We always wanted a minimum of 4 games, which normally was enough plays to get a good sampling in all down and distance situations and field zone areas.
  • We looked for games that they were playing against teams that ran a similar defensive scheme in order to get a better idea how what blocking schemes and pass routes they would employ.
  • We looked for their most recent games.  Often offenses evolve during the course of a season as players improve and injuries occur.
  • We looked for their closest contests.  We always felt the plays they ran in situations in those games gave a better indication as to what their tendencies would be in the heat of the battle.  If they got too far ahead or behind, that would have a tendency to skew the data.  At times, we only put in partial games if this (lopsided score) came into play.

The better data on your opponent that you put in, the more accurate picture of what their actual tendencies are will emerge.

We tried to have all of the opponent film broken down by Thursday or Friday of the week preceding the game.  The whole staff worked on this, with the exception of me as defensive coordinator.  Thursday was my day (see Defensive Game Planning – Weekly Workflow) to finish the actual Call Sheet for our upcoming game, and I did not want to muddle up my thinking by watching a different opponent.  I wanted to make sure my focus was completely on our upcoming game.   On Sunday, we exchanged Saturday’s game (that we just completed) with our upcoming opponent.  If it met the criteria I outlined above, we broke it down and entered the information into the computer.

After all the information was entered into the computer, we began assembling the Formation Analysis, which details our opponents top run and pass plays, their formations, and any tendencies they have for each.  It provides a quick snapshot to our players and coaches as to their overall tendencies.

Hudl makes it easy to get this information.  We always tried to synthesize it down to a single sheet to give our players.  You can download a sample of what we distributed by clicking on this link:  Formation Analysis, or just clicking on the picture below.

formation analysis

You will need to decide if it is worth your time compiling all the information on a sheet like this.  It is very easy to just copy and print the reports that you can generate via Hudl, and may actually be just as good and a more efficient use of time to do that.

The Formation Analysis will list their Top 5 Run plays based on frequency, and any tendencies we have (Strong/ Weak, Wide/Short, Left/Right) for those plays.  It also shows their top Pass Types (Drop, Quick, Roll, Action, etc) and tendencies we have determined for those.  We list and diagram their top formations, the plays they run out of those formations, and any formation tendencies (Strong/ Weak, Run/Pass) that we have determined.

The Formation Analysis forms the basis of our game plan strategy.  We will game plan, both in scheme and dedicating practice time, to stopping what our opponent has shown they want to do; the plays they want to run, out of the formations they want to run them out of, in the direction they want to run them to.

Tomorrow – The Ready List.

The previous posts in this series:

A special Shout Out and Thanks to Tim McGonagle at Kansasprepfootball.com for linking to this blog.  There are MANY great links and a wealth of quality information about football on the Kansas side of the state line on his site… Just click on the link above (or the image below) to visit his site!

ksprepfb Small Web view

Jeff Floyd – youcandomore1@yahoo.com

Defensive Game Planning – Weekly Workflow

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During the season the work of our defensive staff revolves around two main goals.

  1. Developing a game plan specific to the offense of our opponent that week
  2. Implementing the game plan.

The implementation involved two pieces.

  1. Assembling the tools that we would be using in our upcoming game (The Ready List and the Call Sheet)
  2. Teaching and practicing this Game Plan with our athletes.

This work schedule was organized for use with a full staff – 5 coaches, but the same process could be used with just one or two people doing the work.  I have used essentially this same process with only two coaches completing the assigned work.  The attached schedule is also set up for a college football workweek, with the contest being played on Saturday.  It could also be adjusted, with everything being moved up one day, for a Friday contest.

You can download an Excel version of this chart by clicking on this link : Defensive Weekly Work Schedule, or clicking the picture below.

Weekly Schedule

The accompanying chart breaks down daily

  • What the main emphasis is
  • What we would be working on as an entire defensive staff
  • The scouting report information that would be disseminated.
  • What we would be covering in our individual position group meetings
  • What the practice emphasis is.

It is important to note that everything is “synced” … what the daily emphasis is and what we talked about and distributed information about during meetings, was what we worked on in practice that day.

Saturday – Game Day

Sunday

On Sunday our staff graded our previous game video, (see Film Grading Tool) broke down the game that our opponents played the previous day, and began studying our opponents by watching most of the games that they had played.  On Sunday, our defensive line coaches began dissecting the blocking schemes of their top run plays, and our DB coach and LB coach (me) did the same with their pass game. On Sunday, we did not meet or practice with our players

Monday

On Monday we wanted to be prepared to talk to our athletes about our opponents personnel, their schemes, and any adjustments that we anticipated making out of our base 4-3 package.  Our Monday defensive staff meeting was focused on beginning the “Ready List” by determining our best fronts against their top 5 run plays (more on this process later in the week). In our defensive team meeting, we would talk about our goals from the previous game and introduced our upcoming opponent.  We would hand out the week’s outlook on our opponent, their personnel profile, and the formation analysis. We also would give out our position specific film review sheets that we asked our players to complete as they watched video during the week.  Monday’s practice was typically fairly light, with emphasis on improving specific position group problem areas (based on Film Grading Tool) and introducing the upcoming opponents top 5 run/ pass schemes.  Normally this was done in a walk through tempo.

Tuesday

Our defensive staff meeting on Tuesday would be focused on completing the Ready List by adding first and second level stunts to the fronts we were anticipating using against their top 5 run/ pass plays.  In the meeting with our players, we would distribute the sheets and watch film detailing what our opponent’s tendencies were on choice downs (1st down and 2nd down) and also 3rd and Short situations.  These sheets diagramed the plays they ran in those situations, with the blocking schemes we were anticipating.  It also gave the frequency of each play, and any other tendencies we had for those plays (strong/ weak – wide/ short, etc) Tuesday’s practice (and script) would be dedicated to these situations as well.  Hudl makes it very easy to view film and set a script (and export it to Excel, with scout cards) for these situations to use during our practice team time.  I will detail this process later this week.  You can download an Excel file of a Tuesday practice script by clicking on this link : Sample Tuesday Practice Script, or clicking on the picture below.

choice

Wednesday

By Wednesday, our Ready List was completed, and as coordinator, I would begin work on the actual Play Grid and Call Sheet (more on this later in the week).  In our meeting with the players, we would distribute the sheets and watch film detailing what our opponent’s tendencies were on 3rd and medium (4-7 yard to go) 3rd and long (8-10 yards to go) and all XL situations (over 10 yards to go).  We also would work against their goal line offense.  Wednesday’s practice (and script) would be dedicated to these situations as well.  You can download the Excel version of the sample Wednesday script by clicking on this link : Sample Wednesday Script, or clicking on the picture below.

script sample

Thursday

By Thursday the Play Grid and Call Sheet would be completed.  We also would have what calls would be included on the wrist band for that week, and those would be distributed to the players.  Meeting time with our players would focus on reviewing front and stunt combinations that made it to our call sheet and talking about (with hand outs and video) any “gadget” plays that our opponent ran.  Thursday’s practice would be a review of all Down and Distance situations, including any gadget plays that we had seen.  We also would practice a 2-minute situation, often against our own offense.

Friday

In Friday’s meeting with our position groups, we would hand out our position group reminders, and administer our position group tests.  Friday’s practice would include a review of all Down and Distance/ Field Zone situations, and also a “Blitz on Barrels” going through all of the calls (on air vs barrels) that made it to the wrist band for that week – normally 20 calls, but that number could be increased depending on the type of wrist band you use.  We also went through a team script reviewing all special situations.

Tomorrow I will describe our film breakdown process and the division of labor.

As always, questions and comments are welcomed.

Jeff Floyd – youcandomore1@yahoo.com

Defensive Game Planning – Genealogy

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While I was at the University of Central Missouri and William Jewell College, I had the opportunity to work with and learn from some very good defensive coaches –  Terry Noland, Mike Foster, Mark Thomas, Mark Hulet, Rich Jahner, Corey Batoon, Jackie Shipp, Mike Armstrong,  Cornell Jackson , Joe Grubb, and Bart Woods to name just a few.  Coupled with the fact that we were also fortunate to have some very good athletes play on the defensive side of the ball, this lead us to a string of some very good defensive units, perennially ranked nationally in many categories.

One thing that also helped was a process for defensive game planning that we developed and refined during the 10 years I was at UCM.  During my time there I presented this information many times at clinics, sharing the process and tools that we used putting together our weekly defensive game plans to combat some of the best offensive units in the country.

A year ago I was attending the Glazier football clinic in Kansas City, and during one of the breaks, was visiting with several of the vendors.  I walked by the Hudl rep and there was a young coach visiting with the rep and showing him the defensive call sheet that he used… the same defensive call sheet (see below) that we developed at UCM and that I will share in this series of posts!  I was honored to know that some of the tools and procedures we developed are still being used successfully.

LUCall

This series of posts will detail the entire process, from organization, to film breakdown, computer entry, staff and practice organization, call sheet development, and game day procedures.  Some of the information I will be sharing is probably nothing earth shattering for most coaches – much of it is pretty basic.  But there are a few tools and procedures that we developed that may be new to some readers.  If that is the case, and it helps a few coaches, then these posts will have been worth it.

In order to make it easier to read and process, I am going to break this up into several posts, each one dealing with a different aspect of defensive game planning.  This first one will detail the genealogy and history of the procedures we developed.

When I became the defensive coordinator at the University of Central Missouri, one of the first things that we did as a staff was to visit other good football programs who were known for playing good defense, and pick their brains on everything from scheme and technique to drills and game planning. 

The one thing that I was trying to figure out was what would be the best way for me to make calls during a game.  A few concepts that drove this process for me…

  • I am not particularly good at doing things “off the cuff”…
  • I like to be organized…
  • I like things based on data…
  • I needed a tool that could be used effectively during the “heat of the battle” on game day.

The quest for that perfect tool was what drove my conversations during the spring of that year.

The process and the tools that we came up with have their roots in several programs and coaches.  Mike Foster was the defensive coordinator that preceded me, and many of the things that we did were a continuation of processes he implemented.  We also took pieces (most notable a variation of the call sheet that we used) from John Smith, the long time defensive coordinator at Eastern Illinois University.  Finally, we took pieces from what Billy Miller, who was the defensive coordinator at Oklahoma State University at that time, was doing.  Coach Miller’s defensive pedigree can also be traced back to Dave Wannstedt and Jimmy Johnson. 

As is usually the case, the coaching fraternity came through for us with a wealth of good information to get us headed in the right direction

Tomorrow – General Organization and Weekly Workflow

You Can Do More… your brain is lying… don’t believe it!

Jeff Floyd – youcandomore1@yahoo.com

 

Upcoming Posts… Recruiting… Defensive Game Planning

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This week I will finish my series, Recruiting – Gauging Their Level of Interest with the final two posts, The Letter of Intent, and a bonus post, Alphabet Soup.

I will also begin a new series of posts this week detailing a defensive game plan process we implemented while at the University of Central Missouri.  I have given many clinic talks discussing the process, and have been asked to share via this medium.

Basically, I will be showing how to get from this:

down distance

And this:

 runpass

And this:

runpass

And tons more information at your disposal, to this – A single, “game ready” defensive Call Sheet:

LUCall

I am looking forward to sharing this information with you!

Questions and comments are always welcome!

Jeff Floyd – youcandomore1@yahoo.com