Offseason to dos

As offseason has fallen upon us, it’s that time of year to evaluate yourself and your philosophies.  In my current situation, we have had 2 very poor seasons (2 wins in 2010, 3 wins this season) after being 25-3 the two previous seasons.  Obviously, after those two ends of the spectrum it is hard to look at things thru the same eyes.  We are a spread-to-run team.  In 2008 we had a Jr. tailback and a Jr. QB.  The QB missed half the season with a broken collar bone.  The tailback carried the load and was not the same player in week 13 as he was in week 1.  When the season was over, we had a very definite plan.  It was to revamp our passing game to give us the opportunity to be balanced.  We will always be run first but we knew that for an opportunity to advance further in the playoffs we were going to need to be more efficient throwing the ball.  That was an easy offseason.  We visited with the staff at the University of Texas for 3 days and incorporated 4 routes (3 quick game & 1 pap). We also did some addition by subtraction.  We eliminated several routes and really narrowed our focus.  Bottom line…we double our yardage, had more completions than attempts from the previous season, and doubled our TD’s, while keeping the same number of interceptions.  That was a successful offseason.

                Now, after two dismal seasons, where do you start?  Do you being looking closely at personnel, practice plans, philosophy, staff changes, etc.?  There was so much wrong where do you start making it right?  I coach the wide receivers and here is what I decided to do as a start for me.  Our previous head coach left a bunch of COACH OF THE YEAR MANUALS in the field house.  I have seen them there for years and grabbed one or two for trips to the throne before but never really thought of using them as a learning tool.  Just recently, I grabbed one from 1983 and I wanted to share with you some of the things that were in it that have got the mind firing and the x’s & o’s flowing again for me.

The first page had a tribute to Bear Bryant and his famous words –“Am I willing to endure the pain of this struggle for the comforts and the rewards and the glory that go with the accomplishments?  OR : Shall I accept the uneasy and inadequate contentment that comes with mediocrity? Am I willing to pay the price of success?”

That was enough to get me going.  The rest of these tidbits are just a few things I jotted down that I thought were relevant NOW just as they were in 1983.  My top 10…

1.        You have to know what you are doing and what you want to accomplish.  Don’t do it just to be doing it.

2.       Get excited about the 4 yard play.

3.       DO YOUR BEST.  I don’t want the KAMIKAZE pilot that flew 33 different missions.

4.       Factor of 11 – There are 39,916,800 ways to line up 11 objects for all of you multiple guys.

5.       Roger Bannister was the first to break the 4 minute mile.  It was broken 43 times the next 4 years.  Don’t put limitations on yourself.

6.       Be intense enough to get the job done, but relaxed enough to enjoy it. (AMEN)

7.       Again from 1983…Today a player will want to know why you want him to run thru a wall.  You have to tell him why and then he will run thru it.

8.       You have to be willing AND ready to throw on first down and from any place on the field.

9.       Have people around you that like to work.

10.   Be known for something.  Be known for something you hang your hat on.

So what is your plan? What are you going to do?  For those wanting to share ideas and throw things around….lets do it blog style, or shot me an email cmeans@denisonisd.net.  As you may have seen in my other post, I am a HUDL guy that takes full advantage to the exchange features.  If interested in swapping game films, cut ups, drills, etc… shot me an email.