The season kicks off and that call you’ve been working on for 6 months just is not working. Run plays, passing concepts, blitzes, stunts or coverages. Whatever it is… it’s not working.

This is the 5 step process to evaluate that football play call before you just kick it to the curb. You’re always smarter in February than you are in September and October (or whenever your season happens this year!), so let’s figure out what the problem is!

There’s an old saying among option football coaches. OK, really it’s among all football coaches… mostly old football coaches.

If you can’t block ’em, read ’em.

Pretty simple. When you don’t have anybody that can take that guy 1 on 1, you always have another option.

Just make him wrong, no matter what he does.

That’s the premise behind option football. Make one guy wrong, no matter what he does.

For coaches running a true option football system, this is a way of life. Let nothing get in the way of reading the guy that’s causing problems.

Then there’s the rest of us. We run an offense that is not based solely on reading defenders. Are we left out of the option offense goodness?

Nope.

In this episode of The Football Coaching Podcast, I’ll show you how to expand your offensive playbook using option football principles. Without confusing your players and causing a total disaster in the backfield.

Any time you decide to install a new playbook for your football team, you could run into trouble. It takes time to teach the skills your players need. It takes time for the coaches to understand how to teach those skills, too.

The knee jerk reaction when your team isn’t firing on all cylinders in the first few weeks of the season is to panic. Go back to what you were doing before. But that’s not the answer.

This week’s Football Coaching Podcast looks at how to make in-season adjustments when your brand new plan of attack isn’t working like you expected. This is how to get your team back on track with the changes you need to make to reach a whole new level of success.

Football drills are a big favorite among coaches. It's our thing. Standing there holding a whistle, watching your guys run around hoops and over bags. That's what coaching football is all about.

Except that most defensive drills are a waste of time for high school football players. They end up never translating the drills to the field. Today you'll find out the football drills that really matter at every defensive position to get your players ready to win on game day.

When they hit the football coaching scene a few years ago, defensive coordinators were scratching their heads defending RPOs. But while it's a great tool for offenses to attack, run pass options are not as mystical as they may seem.

If you've got a good RPO team on your schedule this season, you don't need to panic and change your whole defense. Follow the 5 tips for defending RPO's in this podcast to shut 'em down.