You hear it on every podcast: Coach Simple, Play Fast, Win. But what does that really mean?
This episode of The Football Coaching Podcast is all about explaining my own personal coaching philosophy. Because a lot of coaches get it wrong. They think I’m a 4-2-5 Defense guy, or a power run game guy.
None of that is true. My entire coaching philosophy is summed up with 5 words. Coach Simple, Play Fast, Win. And you hear it on every podcast. Now, let’s go in depth on what that really means.
The 3-4 Defense has become increasingly popular because of the flexibility to defend everything from downhill rushing attacks to elaborate Spread Option and RPO offenses. In today’s episode we’re going to look and the 3-4 Defense System that is a part of JDFB Insider.
The 3-4 Defense System gives you a simple approach to defense. But with an added complexity and flexibility you can use as needed. We’ll talk about the base front, stunts, and blitz package that are taught inside the system. You can also download alignments to standard formations in PDF format above.
How can you learn to be a better football coach this off-season? There’s more opportunity available than ever, but you’ve got to look in the right places and have a focused goal.
I’ll share 6 resources you can use to learn to coach football, whether you’re just starting out or continuing your lifelong coaching education. And the 3 keys that you must follow to get a coaching education that’s actually going to help your team win games.
You had a great game plan. It should work. Maybe it’s even working for you… to a point. But at halftime, you need to make a few tweaks to get to the finish line.
Halftime adjustments in your 4-2-5 Defense (or any defense, for that matter) can be made for a number of reasons. In this episode of The Football Coaching Podcast, I’ll break down the 5 reasons you should make an adjustment, and share some of those potential adjustments for your 4-2-5 Defense System with you.
Don’t let a driving, pouring rain cost you a football game. Or footballs. Because footballs are expensive.
In this episode of The Football Coaching Podcast, I’ll go into detail about how to prepare for a rain game. I’ll give you the 11 items your program needs to have to get ready (put these on your off-season shopping list!).
Then we’ll talk about in-game management. Keeping the balls, and your players, dry all night. And how you can still hit the perimeter without tossing the football.
Finally, I’ll share how we played a game in a driving rain, and got all of the footballs back to game-ready. The entire process (good and bad) is shared on this podcast!
You beat them once. Or maybe you lost to them. But this is your second game against the same opponent!
Last season, we faced this conundrum twice. We played our week 9 opponent in the first round of the playoffs, and our week 10 opponent in the 2nd round. It’s tough to prepare for the changes you’ll see!
In this episode of The Football Coaching Podcast, we’ll focus on preparing an Offensive Game Plan to face a team you’ve already played one time this season.
Need a different result? Need the same result again? Doesn’t matter. This episode will get you prepared to win!
The biggest difference maker in the success of your offense, and maybe your football team, is how good your Offensive Line plays. For most offenses, that includes great Pass Protection.
Today’s episode of The Football Coaching Podcast focuses on Offensive Line footwork for blocking defenders in drop back passing. And it’s really independent of what pass protection scheme you decide to use.
Learn the most important rules of pass protection. Then find out how to coach the first two steps that will win your Offensive Line most pass protection battles!
Your opponent drove the ball the length of the field. They’re inside your 5 yard line. It’s time to make the big stop.
Defensive Coordinators need to take a big step forward right now - and accept that getting the stop is not very likely. After all, you couldn’t stop them up til now.
But if you CAN make that big stop? What a momentum changer! So your Goal Line Defense needs to be ready to show up.
In this episode of The Football Coaching Podcast, we’ll install a basic goal line package for the 4-2-5 Defense that gives your guys a shot to be heroes (even when they probably shouldn’t be).
We’ve all been through those long practices that seem to drag on forever. It’s not productive, no matter how long you spend out on the field.
What if you could get twice as much accomplished, in just a fraction of the time on the field? Higher energy practices. Consistent effort from your players.
And then get home to your family earlier?
It can be done. But you’ve got to commit to a more efficient practice plan. In this episode of The Football Coaching Podcast, I’ll share with you how to get the job done!
Also, check out the interview I had with Justin Dottavio where he talked about how he keeps his practices to 90 minutes.
You drive the length of the field. But when it really counts, your goal line offense has a tough time punching the ball across the finish line.
This episode of The Football Coaching Podcast is all about turning your offense into a high powered short yardage machine. Find out how you can create a powerful goal line offense and still keep it simple for your players.
Player safety is the single most important aspect of coaching football today. But it doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice effective blocking and tackling.
We started using the Hawk Tackle method before it was even a thing (though we had no idea what we were doing). It has been a huge benefit for football coaches all over the country by increasing player safety while also improving tackling efficiency.
I’ll go over technique and drills for teaching all aspects of tackling technique in this episode of The Football Coaching Podcast!
With the defensive philosophy that I subscribe to, the ‘umbrella’ is critical to the success of the defense. That means your Safety reads must be fast and accurate.
You can’t have a lot of confusion or hesitation. And you can’t give up long passes on play action because of a bad read.
In this episode of The Football Coaching Podcast, we’ll look at 4 different methods of coaching safety reads. Then I’ll go in depth on the one that I’ve found to work the best for our guys.
Coach Brent Dearmon has a pretty impressive resume including most recently working as Offensive Coordinator at Arkansas Tech. Now he’s turning around his alma mater at Bethel University in Tennessee.
In this Football Coaching Podcast interview, Coach Dearmon shares how you can install RPOs into your offense, and how to call plays to attack any coverage. Plus he’ll talk about the turnaround process at Bethel, and about his time working for Gus Malzahn at Auburn.
Coach Dearmon and CoachTube.com generously provided a special deal for Football Coaching Podcast Listeners to get $10 OFF Identifying & Attacking Coverages with the RPO. Coach Dearmon teaches everything you need to know to incorporate RPOs into your offense right now. Click here to get this exclusive deal.
The Outside Zone Play is one of the best offensive plays in football. In the NFL, it may be the most frequently called run in the entire league.
But you don’t care about the NFL. You care about your football team, and how the Outside Zone Play can help you.
Listen to this episode of The Football Coaching Podcast for the complete, in depth look at how to run the Outside Zone Play against all 6 defensive fronts - and absolutely anything else you might see. Plus we’ll break down a few variations to get even more mileage out of the outside zone blocking scheme.
The Pistol Power Offense System has a lot of roots with the Washington Redskins playbooks from the 1980s. Today we’re taking a look at one of those playbooks.
Be warned… this playbook was a mess. There’s no way any Redskins player ever received the playbook in this format.
But we powered through! Look at Inside Zone, Outside Zone, and a couple of very interesting variations of 3rd & Medium or 3rd & Long plays from this 1986 Washington Redskins Playbook. You can also download the playbook above here.
Time to shut down the run. Get serious. You don’t defend spread teams every week! Better be ready to play it tough! This week, we’re talking about running that powerhouse 4-4 Defense against all of the most popular offensive run schemes in football today.
Okay, time for true confessions. This is how we teach defending the run in the 4-2-5 Defense System, and you can sign up at the top of this article to get instant access to a free video series on it. The 4-4 Defense, 4-2-5 Defense and 6-2 Defense are all essentially the same.
You can spend hours and hours watching Hudl, hoping to find some little secret nugget that makes you a genius on your defensive game plan. Truth is, you’re wasting a lot of time.
Learn how to watch film efficiently and take care of the things that matter in your life. Listen to today’s episode for efficient defensive game planning, and then download the free Offensive Film Study Sheet above!
The Miami 4-3 Defense is one of my favorite defensive schemes out there. In the previous episode of The Football Coaching Podcast, we talked about the foundations.
In this episode, I’ll dive into the 1996 Miami Hurricanes 4-3 Defense playbook. This very detailed playbook gives a look at how the defense was evolving throughout the 1990’s at the college level.
In the Pistol Power Offense System we have a great passing system that can attack any defense. And it’s simple. But it will really accelerate once your Quarterback is able to start reading coverages.
This doesn’t have to be a super complicated graduate level class on reading coverages. There’s only a pieces he needs to be aware of before the snap. 4 to be exact.
Listen to this episode of The Football Coaching Podcast to get your quarterback started on reading coverages. Don’t forget download the PDF document above for the visuals from this episode.
We’re breaking down Georgia Military College’s 2008 Defensive Playbook. You can get the playbook from Coach Hoover’s 3-5 Defense page.
This is one of the best defensive playbooks we’ve looked at on the podcast. The description is fantastic, and useful for any defensive coach (not just 3-5-3 Defense guys!).
We’ll look at the GMC Playbook for the fronts, blitz packages, defensive line play, and an in depth look at the coverages. You’re going to want to download this manual too, so click that link above to get it from Coach Hoover’s website!
This is a special interview with Rick Stewart on his Read & React 4-2-5 Defense.
Nothing fancy. I’m not going all ‘Air Raid’ on you just yet. This week’s Football Coaching Podcast is about attacking man coverage with sound principles that can work in any offense.
There’s nothing more frustrating than getting a loaded box, blitzing linebackers, and not having a way to make the defense pay for it. But all that pressure can really cause chaos for your offense.
To get the balance back and return to your running game, you have to be able to throw simple concepts against man coverage. And you must be able to protect the Quarterback.
The concepts discussed in this episode are all part of the Pistol Power Offense System. You can get access to the System by becoming a JDFB Insider client right now!
Too many coaches use blitzes as a way to just ‘make something happen.’ That something could mean either your band, or their band, is going to play. And the outcome might be 50-50 at best.
Defensive Coordinators can minimize risk in two ways. One is obvious. Study the other team, and call your blitzes with intent and purpose to stop specific actions by the offense.
The other way to minimize risk, is coaching linebacker blitz technique. Coaching techniques that are going to give your blitzing linebacker the chance to make a play.
In this episode of The Football Coaching Podcast, we’re going to look at 7 keys to Coaching Linebacker Blitz Technique. Each individual phase of the blitz game is an opportunity to improve your defense.
In the 2000’s, the West Virginia 3-3 Defense was one of several Odd Stack fronts turning heads across the nation. Along with Georgia Military College’s 3-5-3 Defense, these two variations became the most popular for High School Football teams to emulate.
In this episode of The Football Coaching Podcast, I’m breaking down the West Virginia 3-3 Defense playbook from 2002. We’ll look at the philosophy behind the defense, base fronts, alignment, adjustments, blitzes and coverages in this 192 page playbook (download available at the top of this page).
Looking for more ideas to expand your Odd Stack defense or add the front in as a change-up? The breakdown of the West Virginia 3-3 Defense in this episode, along with my previous episode on Coaching the 33 Stack Defense, will get you going.
I started running the 33 Stack Defense in 2006. At the time, it was just gaining in popularity. Many coaches criticized the defense because “you can’t stop the run.”
But the defense gained a foothold. Coaches liked the aggressiveness and the idea of a defense built for smaller players. More speed on the field.
Unfortunately, a lot of myths sprung up around the defense in that era, too. High School Football coaches have done a better job learning the intricacies and executing the defense in recent years.
In this episode of The Football Coaching Podcast, I’ll talk about the basics of the 33 Stack Defense. We’ll also look at those myths and how you can use the 33 Stack Defense for your football team today.