DOUBLE WING/COACHING TIPS

DOUBLE WING/COACHING TIPS

E-MAIL QUESTIONS OR SUGGESTIONS

Read my SCHOLASTIC COACH article on our "WILDCAT" direct-snap package

102. In seventeen years of running the winged-T we have always rotated the ball as the center snapped it. This was done so that the laces were placed correctly into the Q.B.'s fingers. In watching your Troubleshooting video however, yo go to some length to explain that hiding the ball is more advantageous than faking. To that end you bring the football immediately into the groin in a point-to-point fashion. Is the ball being snapped point-to-point? If so, is the QB holding his hands in the conventional manner or does he receive the ball with his thumbs up?For over 20 years now, I have taught my centers and quarterbacks an exchange that does not entail the center's twisting or turning the ball. The QB takes the ball exactly as he would if he were to reach out and pick up a ball lying on the ground. I want him to take the ball this way because (1) I believe it is the most secure way I know - I prove this by having him take one-handed snaps until he is confident that he can do it this way every time. It's the only way I know of in which a QB can take a snap one-handed; (2) this is the way I want the QB to handle the ball when he hands it off - I say "stay on your side of the valve"; (3) I believe this allows him to do the best job of hiding the football, as he "pulls it to his groin" and turns his back to the line of scrimmage. To show the center how and where we want the ball delivered, the QB stands behind the center, holding the ball as in scenes #1 and #2, and holds it between the center's legs at the point where he would get the snap. He lets the center take the ball from him,.but leaves his hand pressing up against the center's tail. The center takes the ball from the QB and takes it to the ground to the point from which he would snap it, then returns it to the QB's hand. There is no flip or twist or turn required. The center merely "hoists" the ball by bending his elbow. TO SEE THIS ILLUSTRATED

101. What do you mean by "counting men" on defense? Many defensive men - I am one of them - base their adjustments to various offensive formations by making sure that they do not allow themselves to be outnumbered on one side of the formation or the other. They do this by counting the men - offensive and defensive - on either side of the imaginary center line, whenever they draw up a defense. Any man lined up on the center line - such as a center, a quarterback, an I-back on offense, or a nose guard or middle linebacker on defense- counts as one-half man. As a general rule, you'd rather not be outnumbered at all; but you never want to be outnumbered by a full man. It is not an infallible system, but if you make a practice of drawing your defenses up against the offensive formations you expect to see (and maybe some you've never seen before), counting men could prevent you from doing something unsound. Below are a couple of examples. (Bear in mind that a slanting "50" defense like the one shown below can overcome a half-man deficit at the snap of the ball - that is, if the defense executes the slant correctly.)

Defensive is matched up numerically
Defense is a half-man short to trips side (Slanting the line toward trips would even up the numbers)

100. What plays/strategies do you use against "grub" or submarining DT's? We're already working on our list of referee points and will include what you've given us, but how do you handle them? Assuming that they are coming hard, while it may not be possible to trap them, we found toward the end of last season that what we call "Charlie" blocking (Delaware's Gut Trap) looks promising, even with our tight splits. We don't block the playside DT at all, just influencing him with the playside guard's pull and folding the center and backside guard. In running outside, the guy who submarines is vulnerable to being buried by a down block - have your lineman drive low into the gap, getting his shoulders there in front of the defender (throwing an uppercut underneath, if possible) or else shoving the defender into the ground with both hands in his back. As in all down blocking, just make sure your man gets there first to prevent pentration.

99. Why don't you advocate faking a toss before handing off on a counter play? My personal belief is that we accomplish far more by hiding the ball than by faking with it. I don't want to show anybody where the ball is. Nelson and Evashevski wrote, "The finest series in single wing football, or all football for that matter, is the complete spin with the fullback." I respect and agree with the opinion of the two men who were instrumental in the development and popularization of the Delaware Winged T system. In our system, the QB essentially takes on the role of the single-wing spinning fullback, pulling the ball to his groin and keeping his elbows close to his side while turning his back to the line of scrimmage at some point on nearly every play. I think it is more consistent with what we want to do to hide the ball and make every play look the same as every other play for as long as possible. But while I tell the QB to hide the ball, I tell my running backs to handle the faking, either by "swimming" with the inside arm and leaning forward and keeping their pads low when running into the line, or by "rocking the cradle" after a "handoff" when they are running across the backfield. (It helps matters if you believe as I do in coaching backs always to run that way anyhow, with "both hands on both points.") Flashing the ball as if tossing it is a bogus fake that a good defensive coordinator will pick up on. It will only fool a poorly-coached team. A well-coached team will be taught to detect - and key on - the obvious difference between an actual toss and an exaggerated fake toss, just as well-coached teams are taught the difference between an actual pass setup and a draw in which the "passer" holds the ball unrealistically high over his head, in a way he would never do if he were actually passing.

98. The good news is that I have been offered the HC position at (a large school in a neighboring state). Totally excited! So what is the bad news.??? I have a question for you. I respect your experience and would like some advice. I was offered the job and the town is nice. The school is REALLY committed to kids and administration support is there. My problem is lack of support at home. My wife really doesn't want to move to a new town, because of the friends and family that we have here (----- is 4 hours away). We also have two young kids. Have you ever been in this situation with all of your moves? I really want the job but am stuck between two powerful forces. Thanks for any info and advice! Wow. This is a touchy one. I would not want to say anything that might jeopardize a family, because it is important that your kids have a mom and dad at home, but you may be interested in my experience.

First of all, I think before embarking on a coaching career, a coach and his wife have to have an understanding that if he hopes to become a head coach - unless they live in a large metropolitan area - there is likely to be some relocation along the way. Sometimes it will be his decision, sometimes it will be somebody else's, but if he is in a one-school town and for some reason he is no longer going to be the coach there, the only way he can stay in the game is to move.

Yes, it is difficult to move away from family. It is not easy for your wife, and it is not easy for your kids' grandparents (I am also a grandparent). I faced this quite early in our marriage, when we moved from Philadelphia to Baltimore - about 2-1/2 hours' distance. My wife was very unhappy at first. Homesick, if you will. But she grew out of it soon enough. I think it is all a part of maturing and growing into your own marriage and your own home. Having little kids certainly helps. Our next move was an hour farther away - 3-1/2 hours, nearly the same as you are now contemplating. But we were still close enough to visit regularly, yet far enough away to have our own life and make our own decisions. We love our families, but this geographical separation, my wife and I now agree, had a lot to do with the strength of our marriage today.

The next move we made was a doozy. It took us to the other end of the country, the Pacific Northwest, where we have been for 25 years. That, I admit, may be a bit far. I would dearly love to be just a four hours' drive from family. In fact, one of our daughters and her husband just moved back to Seattle, 3-1/2 hours to the north of us, and in relative terms, it's like having them next door.

I don't envy you right now. because if you take the job and your wife doesn't come around to supporting you, you will find yourself being tugged in two directions. That can't be good for your marriage. On the other hand, if you pass up a chance like this - which really sounds exciting to me - you could find yourself harboring resentments. That wouldn't be good for a healthy marriage, either.

I will say this. From our experience, this is not bad time for you to move. Your kids are amazingly resilient at their age - my daughter and son-in-law in Seattle just moved from Houston with a 4-year-old and a two-year-old. The kids have had no problems adjusting. They don't know whether they live in one town or another. They live in a house with Mommy and Daddy. Your wife will be busy with the two little ones. Four hours is really not that far away. Your in-laws can come visit you, and you can go visit them, all on a regular basis. Work out a plan to visit regularly and stick to it.

Otherwise, it is going to be difficult for you to stay in (-----) and move up in coaching. You could move to a larger area with more opportunities - but that involves relocation, too, along with plenty of other problems. Make a few concessions to your wife - such as a commitment to regular visits - if you have to, because otherwise my fear is that you may not be a happy guy if you have coaching ambitions and have to turn down a job like this one. And then every time you read about an attractive opening and realize that you can't take it, you are liable to resent it.

My wife has totally supported my sometimes crazy and fanciful pursuit of a coaching career, and now of a risky business venture. I have been blessed.

97. Coach, I was wondering, Do you think the coaches running your system are an older group? Because a lot of the D-W's techniques wouldn't make sense to a young coach. No splits, our stances,. double team blocking, FB on the QB's tail, hiding the ball, etc.. They have never even seen it before.... If so, maybe the older coaches have experienced using, or playing with some of the ideas that are incorporated in your system. I think that would give them the confidence and patience to make it work. Also they are less influenced by the chuck and duck b-s of the NFL. Coach, I would say that a surprising number of the guys the offense appeals to are "old-timers." It is only surprising in the sense that they are so willing at advanced stages of their careers to venture into something new and radical, because it is not so surprising in view of their knowledge of the game, their lack of the need to prove themselves, and their recognition that here is something that works! Another large group who buy in are guys who are brand-new to the game - youth coaches who suddenly find themselves in charge of a team, and in desperate need of something they can teach that will give their kids a chance to win. But despite what you might think, not all young high school coaches are totally influenced by the pro game. An awful lot of the guys I deal with are young coaches still in the process of developing their philosophy of offense.

96. What is your practice schedule like? I can't say what is best for everybody, but for us - High School - a typical practice on a Tuesday or Wednesday (heavy days) would look like this:

3:15 - short meeting

3:40 - everybody dressed and on the field (it's a little distance away from the locker room)

warm-up/ flexibilities/"TANS" (Triceps, Abdominals, Necks, Squats)

form running and agility

form tackling against hand shields/ blocking against hand shields

4:00 - kicking game

4:10 - Varsity Offense (including punt) ------------ JV Defense

5:00 - Varsity Defense ------------ JV Offense

5:50 - Sprints - typical would be 20-40's

As you can see, this may not be totally applicable to a youth program, but you can always reduce the various segments.

I am not a slave to the clock. If we need more time on something, we will take it. That is the coach's prerogative.

In your case, this is assuming you may have to coach two teams, and you have two offensive and two defensive coaches. But the basic practice schedule is same one I have used since I coached in Europe and had no assistants whatsoever.

I find it is best to get your offensive work done first when the kids' powers of concentration are a little better. If you do defense first, you may find that the kids are a little squirrely by the time you get around to running offense. And while you can do defensive work when they're squirrelly, it is not conducive to sharp offensive execution.

One thing we do is practice tackling every day. Including game day. No one gets hurt, and we tackle very well. I show how we do that in my "Safer and Surer Tackling" video.

95. I have enough in my budget for a new camera. What do you suggest? I haven't been shopping for cameras for quite a while, and so I decided to check with the guy I've been dealing with for years, in Portland, Oregon. He highly recommends a camera called the SONY DCR TRV-315. He sells it for $850. His prices are reasonable, but you may be able to find it for less. I don't mind paying a little more - if, in fact, I do - and dealing with a guy like him because I know he's not going to rip me off. And he's going to be there. It's his store. He really knows what he is talking about (it shouldn't surprise you to learn that the most of the guys at those "Big Box" stores are pretty ignorant once you get past talking about a camera's basic features) and provides backup if I ever need it. (As a matter of fact, in many ways I have tried to pattern the way I do business after him.) The camera in question is a digital-8, meaning it is capable of shooting or playing in either DV or 8mm format. It also means that while you may shoot in digital format, you do it on less expensive and far easier-to-find Hi8 tapes. It has a 3" foldout LCD screen. Don't buy a camera without a fold-out screen, and I wouldn't advise going any smaller than 3 inches. I'm sure he said it has RCA inputs (those are the red, white and yellow sockets you see on a VCR) so that you can feed in analog signals (from VHS or 8 mm tapes) and convert them into digital format in your camera, but you might want to check. The ability to convert from analog to digital is a near-essential if you intend to do any serious editing with a computer. You might want to check SONY's web site for the specs.

94. What is the difference between the Delaware Wing-T and your Double-Wing? Not all that much, really. I wouldn't even be running the Double-Wing if I had not been running the Delaware Wing-T and able to make the switch when I decided to try to run Don Markham's Double-Wing power play. The Delaware Wing-T is a survivor: it has been with us in roughly the same form for some 50 years, and it is likely to be with us for another 50. It is looked on by its proponents as more than a formation. It is, as Tubby Raymond and Ted Kempski entitled their book on the Delaware Wing-T, "An Order of Football." I feel the same way about the Double-Wing: it is a lot more than just a formation. It is a system, and not just another way of lining up. While you can turn a Wing-T formation into a Double-Wing formation instantly, just by bringing your split end in tight and moving your halfback out of the backfield and up into a position just outside that new tight end, you will still basically be running the Wing-T. I used to do that myself. The Wing-T is a versatile system that can be run from a wide variety of formations. The biggest difference in our systems is that we operate with virtually no splits. Because of that, I feel that our Double-Wing doesn't require quite the athleticism that the Wing-T does. And we don't play our fullback nearly as deep, nor do we play him upright, in a two-point stance. This helps to hide him, and also gives him a better kick-out angle on power plays. (I do believe that we can run with more power than the Wing-T.) But other than that, it is fair to say that I am still running a compressed version of the Delaware Wing-T's "500" formation. And just like the Wing-T, the Double-Wing, despite its name, is a versatile system that can be run from a wide variety of formations. Some of our motions, steps and timing have had to be changed to accomodate the different angles and distances created by our tighter spacing. Our numbering system and terminology are, I believe, simpler for a newcomer to the Wing-T or Double-Wing to understand. But the bulk of our blocking rules can be traced back to the Delaware system. Years ago, we flew Ted Kempski out for a private clinic. One of the advantages of the Wing-T, he told us, was that its blocking rules had "stood the test of time." So true. Why reinvent the wheel?

93. Hi Coach, I have a question about the QB's technique on Super Power. When we first started teaching it in '98, the pulling guard and QB were often banging into each other, not enough to knock down the QB or separate him from the ball but enough to throw him a bit off balance and slow him way down. I had my QB take a slightly deeper stance and cheat his playside foot back a couple of inches. This seemed to eliminate the problem, but we began to fumble snaps more often. In recent discussions with my fellow coaches and watching game films from that year, some questions arose. It seemed that our guards began to pause as they pulled and this slightly slowed down the development of the play. Our defensive coach said he could key the playside off the QB's staggered stance. I doubt that this is very important, since from straight on, it's not very obvious and, perhaps, adds to misdirection on our counter plays. Still, it began to nag me. Am I teaching this properly? Is there a better way to approach it? I had never really coached QBs before that year and, last year, we had a former QB coaching the backfield and had no trouble at all, though our linemen were not nearly as quick as in '98. Sure would appreciate your comments, if you get a chance. Good question. It is not the first time it has come up, and I have covered it in my clinics. First of all, provided that you run misdirection, it is not necessarily tipping off anything to stagger a foot. I personally am opposed to it just because I guess I am something of a "balance freak," even to the point of occasionally running the Super Power without motion. But whatever you do, you certainly don't want your guard to have to slow down. I suspect that the problem lies in one (or both) of two areas: (1) The QB may be too far under center. You seem to have noticed that and to have tried to deal with it, but then, as you said, you had exchange problems. Keep the QB's hands exactly where they are when he stands close, then back him out of there until his arms are extended. Then, at the snap, make sure he quickly pulls the ball "into the groin" as he steps out. You really have to work on this. It is very possible that the fumbles you are encountering are occuring when the pulling guard hits the ball before the QB has pulled it in; (2) The QB may not be stepping soon enough - or correctly. "Soon enough" means that he can leave on the snap count, too - tell him it's okay - everybody else does. You may be surprised to find that if you have everyone on the team take their first step on the snap of the ball, 10 guys will do so, but the quarterback, with the ball in his hands, will still be in his original stance! Stepping correctly is closely related to his stance. Most QB's, especially if they are up close to the center, tend to have extremely wide stances and to stand duck-footed, with their toes pointed out. Either of those things make proper pivoting difficult; together, they make it nearly impossible. At the same time you back him out of there, you need to narrow his stance to less than shoulder width, and make him stand pigeon-toed. (Try it yourself and see how much better and farther you can pivot on your first step when you do those two things than when you don't.) Now, make sure that he "mentally loads" weight onto his pivot foot. Homer Smith told me he has always told his QB's to try to "grab grass" with the toes of that foot. Now - notice how the playbook says he is to pivot to 3 o'clock (on 88). If you do all these things, you should find that instead of standing in the guard's way, he should be leading the guard out of there.

92. Can you also run the wishbone from the Double-Wing? One of the beauties of the Double-Wing - also one of the dangers - is that you can run a lot of things from the formation. But you shouldn't. I have run the wishbone, way back in my distant past. It is - some would say was - a great offense. I don't spend any time trying to run it as part of my Double-Wing for two main reasons: (1) I won't open up my splits enough to create the crease - the running lane - that you need for the fullback ; (2) The wishbone, like the Double-Wing, is very technique-intensive. I already have enough to teach with the Double-Wing, and so does anyone else who tries to take it on and run it right. I think every coach has to decide at some point whether he wants to settle down and be good at something, or whether he wants to put on a dog-and-pony show, demonstrating how many different things he can run. If you're going to run wishbone, you should run wishbone. I have never seen anybody who ran "a little wishbone" and ran it very well, and I haven't seen anybody who ran "a little Double-Wing" who wouldn't have been better off running it exclusively. I think that at some point, you've got to declare. (By the way, some people will tell you that the wishbone is not the offense that it was back when high school players were allowed to block below the waist. That took away the lead back's block on the playside corner. I have been reminded that Texas does not play by National Federation rules, and still permits blocking below the waist; it would be interesting to know what their injury experience has been relative to the rest of the nation. Also whether the wishbone does any better there.)

91. I have a question about the QB's technique on Super Power. When we first started teaching it in '98, the pulling guard and QB were often banging into each other, not enough to knock down the QB or separate him from the ball but enough to throw him a bit off balance and slow him way down. I had my QB take a slightly deeper stance and cheat his playside foot back a couple of inches. This seemed to eliminate the problem, but we began to fumble snaps more often. In recent discussions with my fellow coaches and watching game films from that year, some questions arose. It seemed that our guards began to pause as they pulled and this slightly slowed down the development of the play. Our defensive coach said he could key the playside off the QB's staggered stance. I doubt that this is very important, since from straight on, it's not very obvious and, perhaps, adds to misdirection on our counter plays. Sure would appreciate your comments, if you get a chance. Good question. It is not the first time it has come up, and I have covered it in my clinics. First of all, provided that you run misdirection, it is not necessarily tipping off anything to stagger a foot. I personally am opposed to it just because I guess I am something of a "balance freak," even to the point of occasionally running the Super Power without motion. Certainly, you don't want your guard to have to slow down. I suspect that the problem lies in one (or both) of two areas: (1) The QB is too far under center. You seem to have noticed that and to have tried to deal with it, but as you said, you had exchange problems. Keep the QB's hands exactly where they are when he stands close, then back him out of there until his arms are extended. Then, at the snap, make sure he quickly pulls the ball "into the groin" as he steps out. You really have to work on this. It is very possible that the fumbles you are encountering are occuring when the pulling guard hits the ball before the QB has pulled it in. (2) The QB is not stepping correctly or soon enough. "Soon enough" means that he can leave on the snap count, too - just like everybody else. You may be surprised to find that if you have everyone on the team take their first step on the snap of the ball, 10 guys will do so, but the quarterback, with the ball in his hands, will still be in his pre-snap stance! Stepping correctly, especially when reverse-pivoting, is related to his stance. Most QB's, especially if they are up close to the center, have extremely wide stances and stand duck-footed, with their toes pointed out. Both of those things prevent reverse-pivoting as far as you'd like him to go. So, at the same time you back him out of there, you need to narrow your QB's stance and make him stand pigeon-toed. (Try it yourself and see how much better and farther you can reverse-pivot on your first step from a narrow, pigeon-toed stance.) Now make sure that he "mentally loads" weight onto his push-off foot. Homer Smith told us at my Birmingham clinic last year that he always told his QB's to try to "grab grass" with the toes of that foot. Now get him to step out of there - notice how the playbook says that on 88 Super Power he is to pivot to 3 o'clock. If he's doing that, you should find that he is leading the guard out of there, instead of getting in his way, Make sure you check all these things.

90. How do you deal with overshifting and undershifting defenses? Actually, we don't see much of that because it is unsound defensive strategy against a balanced offense. We don't feel we should worry about reacting to the defense; we feel it is their job to react to us. We have the ability to automatic if we ever have to, and that could mean merely running the play called, but to the other side. If they are doing this steadily, showing us the same look play after play, we will hammer at their weakness until they change. Maybe they won't. If they seem to be reacting to motion - which we think is difficult to do with short, quick motion - we may run plays without motion. If they are jumping around (stemming) before the snap, we will want to snap the ball while they are stemming, or hit them with a wedge - very hard to defend against when you are preparing to shift sideways. If they are trying to vary their fronts, showing us a couple of defenses, we may either run a few plays at them without huddling, or throw an overshift/undershift of our own at them, just to see if they have been able, in one week of preparation, to teach their players how to recognize and adjust to different sets.

89. I have been looking at some computer-based video editing systems. I notice that you don't say anything about them in your "Video Production" article. What can you tell me about them? I have just finished an update of the "Video Production" article dealing with my recent experiences in this area. Before spending any money on a new computer or any video equipment, you should read it. It is a rather lengthy article, too long to put on this page, so I have given it a page all its own, entitled DIGITAL VIDEO.

88. What sort of weight-training or strength program do you recommend for kids 11 or 12 and younger? I am asked this a lot, and I can only offer an opinion with no scientific basis. Other coaches with more or less experience than I may disagree and I can't say they're wrong. But the general sense I get is that 11 and 12 is too young for serious lifting. It is my observation that freshman year in high school is time enough for a kid to get started on a serious lifting program. And then, only in a carefully supervised program with emphasis on how to - not how much to - lift.

I have seen some very good programs in which weight training is introduced to kids in the summer preceding freshman year, then carefully supervised throughout the year by school coaches or qualified weight-training instructors. Too often, though, kids get started without any instruction in proper technique, or any supervision in the weight room. Worse still, some schools set up "weight training" classes which are that in name only. Counselors often look at those classes as "catch-alls," filling them with the slackers that nobody else wants, and administrators often turn the instruction over to faculty members with no particular interest in or knowledge of weight training; as a result, the classes tend to be disorderly and unproductive - sometimes downright dangerous. It is shocking to see some of the accidents waiting to happen in those classes.

On the subject of weight training, I don't think enough people realize the value of an off-season weight-training program as an important component of team-building. It is great for the kids to get together, to work and sweat together, to encourage each other, and to see that others are paying the same price they are. And they understand that somewhere off in the distance is the real reason why they are all working. For that reason, I am not a big fan of the "lifting on my own" excuse. Coaches who work to develop an off-season program at school run into the "I lift on my own" objection all the time. It's usually a cop-out. It's either mom saying, "he has his own weights at home," or it's the kid saying "I lift at the club."

In the former case, up until it's freshman year and time to get in and lift with his teammates, it's not a bad thing for a young kid who's scarcely exercised before to begin doing something to get stronger; chances are that the lack of equipment at home will limit him to doing lots of reps with fairly light weights, which is not likely to injure him or lead to any bad habits. I can't say I see much wrong with that. Of course, pushups, pull-ups and squats will acomplish pretty much the same thing, but kids want to do what the big guys are doing, and if that's what it takes to get their little hands off the Nintendo joystick, there's a lot to be said for it.

In the case of the club, though, the danger is that, whether he knows it or not, that kid will soon enough be lifting not to become a better athlete, but to become a better lifter. That is likely the way he will be influenced by the people at the club, most of them serious lifters but non-athletes. He will probably learn to spend five minutes sitting on a bench for every minute he spends lifting. He will also spend more time on the glamour lifts that buff him up than he does on the grunt lifts - like squats - whose payoff doesn't come until months later, on the football field. He will probably become bigger and stronger - I won't even mention some of the pharmaceuticals he may be told about - but not necessarily a better athlete, and his isolation from his teammates will probably prevent him from becoming a team leader. You will be surprised how many of these club lifters you will lose to body-building, as lifting becomes an obsession - an end in itself, not a way to become a better athlete. This is how a lot of the "looks like Tarzan, plays like Jane" guys are made. (Sorry, Jane.)

With or without strength training, though, I think that there is a great need for young American kids to become more athletic and competitive overall. We have made their lives easier, and as a result, they just don't do enough vigorous, competitive things. Because of a decline in strenuous physical activity among kids in general, and a de-emphasis on elementary physical education, I believe that kids at the middle-school level would benefit from a systemized introduction to a flexibility (stretching) program, and a form-running/agility program. (I would recommend jumping rope as a part of any off-season program, any PE class, or any youth sports program. It is great for any athlete, at any age, in any sport, at any position.) I know that all this runs counter to the "PE as fun" movement in which we don't require kids even to dress for PE if they don't feel like it, but here, it seems to me, is a great opportunity for Physical Educators to regain the respect their profession deserves. They can establish standards and help kids work to meet them. Hey! Real self esteem! The kind that comes from achieving something! And in the process, they will help kids become more fit - and better athletes. In some parts of the country - Texas comes to mind - middle school coaches, if not PE instructors, seem already to be doing an excellent job in this regard.

87. Your method of numbering and designating plays makes a lot of sense. But, how do you call your plays during a game? -- i.e., Do you shuttle them in or signal them? Does your QB use a wrist band? I coach a youth team and I'm looking for the simplest method possible to avoid miscommunication between me and my QB on the field. Over the last two years, I have been using a system which is an adaptation of an idea I got from a coach named Bob Hepp, now the head coach at Manitowoc, Wisconsin. I think it is pretty slick. Not only does my quarterback wear a wrist band, but so does every one of my other offensive players. To call a play, I call out or signal its "map coordinates" and the players locate it on their wrist bands. We may huddle or not. While the team huddles, the QB comes over as close to me as the rules allow and I tell him the play call. He doesn't really have to come very close, because I can yell out the coordinates of a play and nobody on the defense is going to know what they mean. For that same reason, I may sometimes have the QB stay in the huddle while I holler the play for the whole team to hear, or I may have the team assemble at the line - or actually get down into their stances - without huddling at all. We could - but don't - buy "wrist coaches," instead making a new set of wrist bands every week at a cost of about 25 cents apiece. I would consider devoting a page to how this is all done, if there is sufficient interest.

86. Why do you say you want your linemen back off the ball as far as legal?

(1) Gap protection - we want our man to get into the intersection before the defensive lineman

(2) Pulling opposite - eliminates wasted steps - and time - having to get deeper than the center in order to get around him

(3) Releasing inside - we want to be able to escape defensive linemen when releasing upfield or crossfield

(4) Forming the wedge - we have got to close down quickly to prevent penetration

(5) More time to read - so much of our blocking is conditional, based on what the defense does after the snap

(6) Getting farther away from grabbers - it's illegal, but you wouldn't know it from the number of guys who teach it

85. How many different blocking techniques do you teach? Essentially, we teach four blocks- (1) The running drive block, shown in the "pancake drill" footage in "Dynamics of the Double Wing." Everybody learns that technique and uses it for all blocks except- (2) The down block (stepping into the gap and getting our helmet across the defender's path and then pinning him with the far shoulder and elbow) which basically is a drive block using half the body; (3) The double-team, in which two men, stuck together at the hips, each perform a drive block using half their body; (4) The hinge, or drop-back pass block, which is basically the same as the pros use and which really isn't very tough to teach when you have the tight splits that we do. This is the only block in which we do not employ the basic drive blocm technique, keeping our arms in and making contact with pads first. (We show how we teach our blocking in "Installing the System" and also "Troubleshooting the Double Wing" tapes; Tip #43 explains my reasoning for using the drive block technique rather than the "shove" block currently in favor with most people.

84. Coach- received video "Dynamics of D.W.". Best football video I have seen. Can't wait to start installing system. Am also going to order "Installing the System" and the tackling video. Just wondering if you teach your linemen to block with their forearm and shoulders or with their hands. I find when I teach 11&12 year old kids to block with their hands in bench press like style they tend to stand up. I liked the way you showed teaching your backs the running drive block. Do you teach your linemen the same type of style? Glad you like the tape. We teach basically six blocks- (1) The drive block - and the running drive block - which we show in the "pancake drill". It is the technique that we spend most of our time on. Everybody uses that technique for all blocks except- (2) The reach block, which isn't all that different from the drive block in technique, once we have established outside leverage by getting our helmet outside the defender's helmet; (3) The "shoeshine" or backside cut-off block, which is a sort of reach block, thrown low against a man who tries to chase a pulling lineman; (4) The down block , a one-shoulder block which involves stepping into the gap and getting our helmet across the defender's path and then pinning him with the far shoulder and elbow; (5) The double-team, also a one-shoulder block, where our two men work to stay stuck together at the hips; (6) The hinge block, which is similar to the technique the pros use in their pass blocking and really isn't very tough to teach when you have the tight splits that we do. We stress keeping separation between us and the defender, and so we teach using the hands, emphasizing elbows in and fingers up. (We show how we teach our blocking in "Installing the System" and also the "Troubleshooting" video; check Tip #43, which explains my justification for using the drive block rather than the "shove" block.) I should point out that downfield, although we try to get our pads on a guy, sometimes the best we can get is a "shove."

83. How do you deal with 7-8-9 and 10-man fronts? Until recently, all we saw were 9- and 10-man fronts. Our rules will block them. (Technically, all they've done is cover all the gaps.) Consider for a minute how placing large numbers of people close to the line actually puts the defense at a disadvantage: (1) The Super Power play is based on the principle of walling off to the inside and outnumbering the defense at the point of attack - getting there the "firstest with the mostest." So every defender who is up close, totally committed to defending his side, is likely to be walled off when the ball goes the other way; (2) With all those people up, when we break it, we break it - there is no one left to stop us; (3) The Double-Wing is a great passing offense, provided you (a) throw to score, not just for variety; (b) throw to exploit an apparent weakness; (c) throw when it is least expected - "throw when you don't have to, and don't throw when you do have to." Fortunately, I had the people this past season to be able to take advantage of opponents who played up close to stop the run. Although we threw only 59 times, we completed nearly 50 per cent - 26 - and half of the completions - 13 - were for touchdowns. That's a touchdown every 4.5 attempts; the pros are happy with one TD every 10 attempts. And consider this - my QB threw only 4 interceptions all season. Three of them came in the first two games, when the kids were still getting used to the offense. I don't kid myself - that kind of efficiency just doesn't happen every year. I had good skill people. But having a high-yield, low-risk passing game - one that can be productive without at the same time being destructive - does say a lot about the versatility of the Double-Wing.

82. What is your adjustment to a DE who crashes hard chasing down the LOS off the outside hip of the TE from the motioning-wing side? We have had trouble with fast DEs who can chase down our toss from the backside. Any advice you can provide would be greatly appreciated. I assume you're talking about a defense which requires the center to block a man on his nose, thus preventing him from check blocking, and therefore requiring the TE to cut off the next man out from center, normally a DT - leaving the TE unblocked. (Sounds like a 5-2, 5-3 or an Eagle or 46 or something along those lines.) I think that for a guy to be doing what you describe, he has to be leaning forward, inside-conscious, and, if he intends to catch a power play from behind, pinching down tight. Here are some things we have done:

(1) Do not leave your man in motion so long and do not send so him deep. Our man is only in motion a few steps before we toss the ball; our aim point for his motion is now the heels of the B-Back (fullback). After catching the toss, we would like our runner to be able to get his inside hand on the back of his pulling tackle if at all possible.

(2) If necessary, run the play without any motion at all (you will be surprised - it will work fine and it will freeze those DE's);

(3) Block down all along the LOS, relieving the TE of having to cut off, and freeing him to turn out on the DE;

(4) Run our Reach Sweep around that end (we run the play on first sound, without motion); anybody geared up to chase a play to the opposite side has to be vulnerable to a reach block.

(5) Bootleg to that DE's side, hooking him with the playside guard

(6) 7-C - Fullback counter underneath the DE with an outside fake

(7) Red-Red Tight End Screen Left - throwback screen to the backside TE

81. We will be facing a 5-2 that likes to blitz its LBers. Any suggestions? First of all, blitzing LBers in themselves shouldn't do much harm to an offense such as our Double-Wing, with its tiny splits. What they can do, though, is create a "TNT" situation in which, if your center blocks the Nose and your backside guard pulls across the formation, the backside backer could cause you some serious problems if he fires. Consider blocking down whenever you run super powers, counters or traps. The guy who will cause you the most trouble with this arrangement is the playside tackle, if he is real tough - if it is just too hard for your TE to prevent his penetration. If that is the case, then it is likely he is trappable (see below): bring your tackle down hard ("3 trap at 4") so he will catch the playside LBer if he fires, or the tackle if he pinches; bring the TE over the top for the playside LBer if he doesn't blitz, for the backside LBer if he does; trap the first guy past your tackle, which could be the DT or the blitzing LBer - or maybe even the DE. Make sure your B-Back is patient and keeps working playside for an opening. Make sure your QB clears out of the B-Back's path, whether he fakes the Buck Sweep or the Super Power.

80. Even though we won this season I often felt unappreciated and disrespected. (Deleted) is a difficult place to coach because so many of our kids come from dysfunctional families and their behavior in our last game was so inappropriate I really have to question how much more time I want to spend in this environment. Am I wrong to consider making a change? Maybe. And maybe not. It is pretty well understood that not many of us find that one great situation in which we can stay for an entire career. For one reason or another, at some point, we will leave or be asked to leave. Some coaches can remain in situations where they will never have much talent and, consequently, it is hard to win with regularity. They are not necessarily successful in the conventional win-loss sense, but they teach sound fundamentals, they can get their kids to play hard, and their kids are better for the experience. And the community in general is grateful. But such Pleasantvilles are becoming harder and harder to find, and much more typical are places where it's very difficult to win - and when you do, the community quickly grows spoiled and expects still more. There are also those places where you could win them a state title, and many of the people are unhappy with you nevertheless because you didn't showcase their kids. Remember, too, that a school is a dynamic place: things just don't stay the same. For example, the principal with whom you have a great relationship may decide to turn over some of his responsibilities - including overseeing the football program - to the A.D., who resents the football program because it's been outside his control. The parents who were your staunch supporters lose interest when their sons graduate. You have to take a look at the number of negatives in the school and in the community over which you have no control, and decide whether you can live with them. It would be nice if it didn't have to be this way, but this is the way it is, and part of being a career coach is being astute enough to recognize warning signs and make your move when the time is ripe. It is said that Bobby Bowden knew it was time to leave West Virginia when after several good years, he had one bad year - and was hanged in effigy. He came back for one more year and had a great season - and then he was out of there, gone to Florida State. The rest is history. Any place that would disrespect a man like Bobby Bowden didn't deserve him, and your attitude - any coach's attitude - ought to be that any place that doesn't respect you, doesn't deserve you.

79. My son is back in the lineup at his high school tonight after being out with an injury for 4 weeks. He was the starting QB but since then the back up has done some remarkable things throwing the ball also. My son will not be starting at QB but at Safety. Though I feel bad for him I do understand the coach's decision. I was talking to him on another issue and he told me he needs my son on the field, somewhere, just for his athleticism - That he may play QB again, but he may not. Depends on the circumstances. Told him I understand completely and that I trust his decision completely. Question of the day, not that I am trying to blow my own horn, but how many parents would have hooted and hollered to get "little Johnny" back into the lineup? Gone to the Principal? I applaud you as a youth coach yourself for being able to understand the high school coach's point of view. I have known coaches who totally lost perspective and became meddling parents themselves once their own kid was in a similar situation. First of all, it is a tribute to your son that the coach sees things in him that make him want him on the field somewhere. If your son is able to deal positively with this, he will come out of it a much better player and a much stronger person. Who knows what lies ahead? He could be back at QB in a heartbeat, and if in the meantime he shows that he is a team player, he will return with unquestioned credentials as a leader, and with the complete trust of the coach. And then it may be impossible to dislodge him. Although I don't know the kids or the situation, I would almost certainly have done things the way Zack's coach has. Thanks from high school coaches everywhere for handling it the way you have.

78. It is my first year here and it has been tougher than I expected. We have been getting drilled, and several seniors have defected. The kids we are left with - mostly underclassmen - are playing hard. But it is tough keeping them going week after week, and even though they've never won here, the community is not being patient. Don't know how much history you know, but every Pennsylvanian learns about Valley Forge, and it would help you to know about it, too. There are lessons in it for every football coach, because at Valley Forge, George Washington had a lot more on the line than turning aroound a football program or keeping his job. There, in the countryside outside Philadelphia, Washington was at his absolute lowest - he'd had his butt kicked by the British at Germantown, many of his troops deserted to go get their crops in, and as winter set in, those who remained were freezing their tails off with little or no shelter. They got no help from the Continental Congress, nor any sympathy from the nearby farmers, who wouldn't accept the Americans' funny money and wouldn't sell them food on credit, but were only too happy to sell their produce to the British for good old English pounds. The British, meanwhile, were partying and having a great time with the ladies of Philadelphia (the ladies like winners - it's always been that way), while Washington's men were dying of smallpox, starvation and frostbite, walking around in the snow with rags wrapped around their feet because they'd boiled their boots and eaten the leather. Of the 11,000 men he started out with, more than 3,000 died. Many more deserted. But miraculously, when spring came, they were ready to fight. A German, Baron von Steuben, had drilled the healthy ones and whipped them into a unit. And, most important of all, Washington knew that the men who had made it through that long, cruel winter at Valley Forge with him were going to be with him for the long pull. They were a lean, mean fightin' machine - thanks, in large part, to Washington's leadership. If it weren't for him and the way he kept those men focused on the main goal, we'd all be interrupting our cricket matches for tea and scones, and playing a different type of "football" altogether on something called a "pitch." Not to make any references to your players, but Washington once made a great statement on the importance of leadership- "A pack of jackasses led by a lion will defeat a pack of lions led by a jackass." This may be your winter at Valley Forge.

77. I just received news that my best defensive player is out for the season. Our entire defense has been built around him, and now I don't know whether to just put someone in his place, start re-arranging people so we can keep playing the same defense, or go to a whole new scheme. This is a tough blow, and you may find that your entire defensive scheme, which works great with this kid in it, is not so great without him. Something like losing your great tailback and finding out you're not a very good "I" formation team without him. You may have to rework the whole deal. Having spent several years at small schools now, I have grown used to this - finding a defense that each new group of kids can play, and that we can teach. One of the things I like best about the Double-Wing is that I don't have to let the personnel dictate what offense I'm going to run - maybe which plays we will run the most, but not the basic offense. But I do find myself letting the personnel dictate the defense that we will run. I am very flexible regarding defense and would even consider a 5-2, which scares me to death because it requires studs at just about every position if you're going to play it right. (And don't forget this, especially at the youth level, in making your plans - an awful lot of us find ourselves in a spot somewhere in our career where we have to hide somebody.)

76. Hi , I am an 18 year old student at the local Junior College. My dream in life is to be a football coach and I was just wondering if there are any books, classes, or a certain age where I should start out at like pee-wee, etc.... If you could get back to me I would really appreciate it. You can read all kinds of books and take all kinds of classes on theoretical coaching, which seems to be the European soccer system of training coaches, but I think the American football system, hit-or-miss though it may be, still tends to do the best job of selecting coaches - both training the good ones and weeding out the weaklings - of any system I know of. It is basically the centuries-old apprenticeship system. Just like the apprenticeship programs by which people for centuries have learned trades, the trick for you is to find a good "master" to apprentice yourself to. You don't say what junior college you attend, so I can't make any specific recommendations, but my first suggestion would be for you to contact the head coach at a local high school. If there are several high schools near you, inquire locally and find out which coaches seem to run the best programs - not necessarily which ones win the most games. Then, approach one or more of those coaches and tell him (them) that you are interested in working with the program as a coaching intern - that in return for watching what they do and sitting in on coaches' meetings, you will do whatever sort of work they require. (It may entail a lot of grunt work.) This type of internship is becoming pretty routine procedure in many businesses now, and it is standard for just about all college coaches to have served as an underpaid "graduate assistant" before being hired as a paid assistant. It is a great way for you to acquire a mentor - a coach or coaches who can direct you to books and videos, and best of all, share their experiences with you. (An older staff might be of more benefit to you educationally.) It is also a great way to acquire the recommendation of someone who one day might help you get a job. In fact, he might hire you himself someday. (I always like to see how a guy works as a volunteer assistant on my staff before I consider hiring him. I will always give the edge to someone whose temperament and work habits I have been able to observe first-hand.)

75. Our JV team was told, I believe incorrectly, that when we run Over Tight (An unbalanced set, with the Left End lined up on the right, next to the Right End- HW), that our Offensive Tackle on the left side needs to report as an eligible receiver. Sounds like JV officials, too. They have their days of the week - Friday and Sunday - confused. This happens in the NFL, but in high school ball, it doesn't matter whether he "reports" or not - he is not and can never be eligible so long as he is wearing an ineligible number. Period. The rules don't prohibit him from lining up on the end of the line. All they say (Rule 7, Section 2, Article 5-a) is that you must have seven men on the line of scrimmage, and five of them must be wearing ineligIble numbers. The rules don't specify where they have to be on the line. As for your tackle's having to "report" himself as "eligible" - (Rule 7, Section 5, Article 6) "the following players are eligible pass receivers: (a) All A players eligible by position and number include those who, at the time of the snap, are on the ends of their scrimmage line or legally behind the line (possible total of six) and are numbered 1-49 or 80-99." Note that there is no provision for a player wearing an ineligible number to become eligible by reporting himself as such, regardless of where he lines up. Your left tackle may be eligible by position, but by number, he is not, and won't be until he changes jerseys.

74. We are in our first year of trying to turn around a perennial loser, and we are struggling with the offense. And the defense. And we have a losing attitude. Our younger kids are doing fine, but the varsity is struggling. We have yet to win. When you take over a losing program, you have to resign yourself to the idea that things are going to take time, because there are just so doggone many things wrong and even if you fix one of those things it's not usually enough to get things turned around. You buy a beat-up old house and you fix the plumbing, but there's still so much else to be done that nobody even notices. I have usually found - having gone through a few such situations, and going through one right now - that it is important that you to be the one to retain his perspective - to constantly be on the lookout for signs of improvement, however small ; to believe as a staff that you are making improvement, and to you keep looking for ways to show the kids where they are getting better doing the things that you are teaching them. And forget about how ready the kids say they are, how much they say they want to win. It is almost certain, no matter how much bluff and bluster you hear from them, that deep-down, they think of themselves as losers and believe in their hearts, going into a game, that something bad is going to happen to them. (I tell our kids before every game, "something bad is going to happen to you tonight." The point is that football games - just like life - are chock full of unpleasant surprises, but they're only killers if we let them be. Often, what separates winners from losers is how they react to adversity.) I also know that it is very rare in a turnaround situation for things to happen quickly. Rather than miracles, it takes drudgery, hard work to eliminate the things that beat you - turnovers, foolish penalties, missed assignments, big plays by opponents, poor tackling, mistakes in the kicking game. And don't ever feel locked into the personnel situation - it is perfectly natural for you still to be making personnel changes. It's possible, in a new program with a new offense, for you to be making such changes right down to the final game. I am always looking for a way to do something better. Fortunately, a relatively simple, easy-to-learn offensive system can make this possible. And whatever offense you are now running, assuming that you had given it the amount of thought and research it requires, I would urge great caution in making any drastic change in the system. That's because of the way it would be perceived by the kids - "the coaches are already panicking. " Chances are, if they've been losing a while, they've seen vacillating leadership before. I think it can give kids the idea that turning things around is the coaches' job, and not theirs. You certainly don't want the kids to get the idea that you are looking for a miracle cure, because in football, there is no such thing. What these kids need, I think, is clear and unequivocal signals from the staff that (1) it knows what it is teaching and (2) believes completely in the soundness of what it is teaching and (3) isn't going to accept anything less than their best. A staff that says, "This isn't going away. You can't make it go away. You might just as well make up your minds to run it correctly, because the same plays you're running now, you're going to be running the last week of the season, and next year, too." Remember Bill McCartney's great quote - "you have to convince the kids that the reason a play failed was that they failed to execute."

73. I had to make a tough decision yesterday and switch QBs. Not really a "tough" one after seeing the films, but a difficult one since the QB's dad is a friend of mine. I have been on his butt for 3 weeks now to get out and block on the Super Powers and he is just not doing it. The CB was making tackles all day against us and he is just not sticking his nose in there to block. This is not a "tip" so much as a compliment for making a tough decision. That is what makes a football coach. There come those times in every coach's life when he has to put personal feelings aside and do what's best for the team.It often falls into the category of keeping a kid around because doing so might save him, or letting him go because doing so is in the best interests of the team. In our society, the vast majority of people make the easy, feel-good decision. "Hey, give him another chance!" That's why so many modern "educators" will stick an unruly, unmotivated jerk in your class, even if it means short-changing the rest of the kids in our class. A real football coach makes tough decisions that most people nowadays don't have the stones to make.

72. We lost a tough one the other night because we gave up a late score. We were winning and I told our defensive coordinator to play prevent defense, which he did - for one play. While I turned to talk to my quarterback, he went back to running the defense he wanted to play. We lost. What's more, when we were unable to come back in the last minute after we fell behind, he started bad-mouthing the offense. Fire his sorry ass. Even if your A.D. says you still have to pay him, pay him - but get this cancer out of your program. The absolute number one thing that any assistant must provide is utter loyalty to the head coach. If he can't provide that, he has to go. Even if you have to coach by yourself, you are lots better off than keeping a guy around who is just waiting to shove it between your ribs. It is a horrible example for your kids to see, and no matter what kind of a truce your A.D. may propose, this guy may clam up, but he is not going to change. He will just go under cover. In a sense, you are fortunate to have been given, this early in the season, an open demonstration of the kind of person he is. Put it this way - by the end of this season, one of you will be gone. And the longer he stays, the greater the chances that you will be the one.

71. I am a young future football coach who stumbled across your web site. Could you please tell me where I can order a football playbook template (stencil) from? Thanks in advance. Nice to have you on board, coach! I haven't used a stencil or template for years, so I don't know where to tell you to go. At the very least, a drafting-supplies store would have something that would let you draw neat circles, etc. I used to make my own templates, using a stiff piece of plastic and punching holes in it with a strong hand punch. Now, though, I do everything on my computer using a program called Microsoft Works. I imagine you can still get it somewhere. I am sure there are others, including Appleworks, which is made just for Macs, but Microsoft Works has been good to me. It is relatively inexpensive and pretty easy to use, and it's an integrated program, containing a word processor, a database and a spreadsheet. It also has a simple drawing feature that allows you to draw circles, ovals, squares, and so forth, as well as letters (for the defensive guys) and lines. That is how I drew every play in my playbook. Then, the beauty of it is that you can save your work for future use. If you ever need to revise the drawings or the wording, you can do so without having to re-draw the entire play.You only have to draw a formation once- then you can copy it and paste it to page after page. I use the database for rosters, and the spreadsheet for scouting and film analysis; the word processor is good enough for most of what I have to do. Bill Gates did not pay me for that testimonial.

70. (I know, I know. I don't issue a uniform number 69, either) "Our squad has 60 players on the team and a staff of 5. Today as we prepared for the 1st game of the season on the road, it has been known by players and staff only 45 can go. All players were told if you don't go on this road trip you will definitely go on the next. You would think that is a fair "politically correct" thing to do. Well little "Johnny" didn't make the cut, goes running to mommy....who goes whining to the H.C. of varsity,that her precious, has attended all jv practices and deserves to go. He is devastated. Does the JV coach stands his ground????...nope. The JV coach explains little "Johnny" was left off in error and will travel. Well call me a hard ass,but "johnny" should NOT go, showing up to practice does not equate to paying your dues, just like showing up to work if you don't produce and hustle from beginning of practice until the end, you shall reap no reward for your hard work. Oh, to make matters worse,the list of the kids who "made it" was posted for all to see. "Johnny's" mom should want to know what Johnny can do to improve so that there is no question that he has earned his way. I told the coach u have just opened a can of worms for the season,because Johnnys mom WILL PASS THE NEWS to other parents,whose pride and joy is not on the traveling squad for game one. I expect to see more parents make the plea,via phone or in person, with the same story. Where are the Alpha-Coaches????Will the parents be calling plays too??" Sounds like "Invasion of the Soccer Moms." This "entitlement" garbage runs totally counter to the concept of football as a meritocracy - a place where excellence and achievement rule. First of all, let me state clearly that I believe every kid who attends all the practices, does all the work, and follows all the team rules deserves a certain amount of playing time at the level he is competent to play at. It is not fair to demand a kid work his tail off without the expectation of some playing time. How you slice the pie of playing time is, of course, a matter of coaches' judgment, but I do believe that every kid meeting the qualifications I described above must get to play some. That having been said, I would just ask this: why in the world do you need to take 45 kids to a game, unless there is a reasonable expectation that they will play? (Unless we're talking about California, where JV games are played imediately befpre the varsity game.) I sure don't want any JV player to think for one minute that we are taking him on a field trip. It has been my experience that those younger kids who tend to be loud and giggly on the bus, who are usually the ones talking in the locker room, can be a huge distraction to the older guys, who should be concentrating on the task in front of them. And having a bunch of non-players standing on the sideline will inevitably lead right into the next "entitlement": playing time in the varsity game. Now you will have parents complaining because you didn't put their kids in the game. Furthermore, I can almost bet that once travelling with the varsity team is accepted as an entitlement, it will be devalued: somes kids will begin deciding that they don't want to go. What an insult to your program: rejection by a JV! Although occasionally I will "reward" small numbers of kids with trips to games that they are not going to play in, I feel no compulsion and I am under no orders to do so; nor have I ever felt any need to "dress up" our sideline with superfluous kids. Perhaps someday I will find myself in a situation where we have 22 starters, and our special teams are all filled by competent back-ups, but I doubt it, so instead I will continue to dress a maximum of 25 kids, five or six of whom come as a "reward" for merit - outstanding practice performance during the week - not attendance, and with the clear understanding that they may not get in the game. We sell it to the kids as a privilege that must be earned, and not a right - er, entitlement. If this mom doesn't like it, perhaps she and her kid should take a hike. Oh- and the JV coach would appear to need a little refresher course on defending the program - not to mention a set of stones.

68. I did not email you our score because I was somewhat embarrased. Let me explain. I have been using the Double Wing exclusively for nearly 3 years now with much success. Thanks entirely to your system we did win the conference last year! Needless to say we have become known as a '"running" and "power" team throughout the league. The personnel this year, though very good kids that I am proud of, are not as fast or quick as my previous teams, thus we have had a "slow" start. If you recall we won our first scrimmage and tied our second. The second scrimmage opponents played our DW very well and we were only able to score once. They literally shut down the majority of our powers and wedges. Very unusual for one of our teams. When our third scrimmage began (a couple of nights ago) it seemed as if that team also was going to shut down our running game! Like any other good coach would do, we began passing. Very successfully. We scored 2 quick touchdowns with Thunder, Thunder-Switch and then "morphed' the defense into a playing our Thunder again and ran our Tight Thunder - Rip/Stop- A-Screen. An immediate 40 yard gain that we then finished off with a wedge to score! Why was I embarrased? Being a "vet" DW coach I do take some pride in being known as a power team and ball control offense. This is the first time in my 14 years of coaching youth ball that I get the feeling I may have to pass (and use the DW to set it up!) Though we dont have the speed or quickness, we do have the "big bodies" to pass block and some kids with some soft hands. What's to be embarrassed about? Our Double-Wing is not a religion - it is a flexible system of attack.You can't afford to be be bull-headed and use horse cavalry when the other army has tanks, and you don't want to be leading an infantry charge into machine-gun fire. The British lost the American colonies because they were fighting European-style on American terrain; some would say that we were at a similar disadvantage in Viet Nam. Too many generals have lost wars because they stubbornly pursued a way of fighting that wasn't suited to the conditions or their resources. If some of our military leaders had their way, we never would have built aircraft carriers. You have to be a smart enough leader to know what your strengths are and use the system to your best advantage. Otherwise, "When your only tool is a hammer, every problem had better be a nail."

67. My team played a practice game yesterday using your offensive system. It went well, except for the fact that before the game I notified the officials, on your advice, about the wedge blocking and how my wingbacks would be pushing on the back of the tackles and not the runner (hopefully). The head official told me it is illegal to do so. He said he'd been officiating for 30 years and had always enforced that rule accordingly. I asked him to show me the rule and he didn't have a book. He said it had to do with illegal use of hands. I can find no rule which supports his claim. The only thing close is rule 9-2-1 Art.1 which says you may not "grasp or encircle any teammate to form interlocked blocking". Have you had problems with officials on this matter? Your man seems ignorant of the rules, but like a baseball umpire, seems to think he can create his own strike zone. In literally hundreds of conferences with officials, I have yet to encounter a single complaint from a single official, the vast majority of whom I believe to be conversant with the rules of the game, and not eager to enforce rules that don't exist. The tactic we teach is itself a reaction to officials' concern that our wingbacks might be assisting the runner. So long as our men are merely pushing on the tackles, there is nothing that proscribes their doing so. Your man has evidently been making the wrong call for 30 years and is probably so supremely impressed with his judgment and knowledge of the rules that he is beyond correction. To appease him, you might ask him what he would say if your backs were merely to form the drive blocking surface and block against the backs of your tackles. He'd probably say it was illegal because it had something to do with clipping your own man.

66. We completed our first scrimmage yesterday. We ran 40 offensive plays, but with the exception of the last series we pretty much had no gain. It seemed the Defense was able to string out our outside run. I'm not sure what "outside run" you refer to, but there is no play we run that any defense ought to be "stringing out." First of all, we never run any play just to see if we can get outside - only when it is apparent that defenses are packing in tight to stop our power game. If, however, you are referring to the powers as "outside runs," then your kids are not running them correctly. Our power plays are not designed for the runner to get outside; they are predicated on our being able to hit inside the average defense, which if it is well-coached has been taught to prevent you from running outside. We have "reach" and "sweep" plays to get outside, but we never run them as base plays, daring the defense to stop us, and we don't run them as speculative plays, just to see if they might go. For us, they serve the same function as counters - capitalizing on something the defense has done to stop a base power play - so we wait to use them until in our judgment they are there.

65. While the kids at my new school are receptive to change, I'm having problems with faculty and staff at the school. I'm trying to change the attitudes about the football program here and I'm running into resistance. One pathetic example is: The football players wanted to change the decal on the helmets. We had a plain letter and no stripes on the helmet. So I came up with a Muscular looking mascot to put on the helmet. The kids really liked it. Well a secretary in the office saw my idea while I was ordering the decals and she freaked out. Started going off about how that was not our mascot and how I was going to get myself into trouble. ( All over a sticker on a helmet) The design didn't have a weapon and was not offensive. Well to make a looooong story short, the school board had to vote on my decal design!!!!! Can you believe that? (This secretary had told me that she didn't make many football games: so why would she care what we have on our helmets anyway?) Then the Jr. High football and J.V. Girls basketball coach (same guy) heard me talking to the football players about our FOOTBALL fundraiser we are going to do and what we are buying with it. Well, this coach started telling me that I needed to involve other coaches in my decisions about what I was going to buy with the FOOTBALL money. Obviously I told him that if he wanted some stuff for the weight room he would need to go to the booster club. He wants a decline press and a roman chair. Nice stuff, but not essential when your weight room has 2 bench presses, 2 squat racks (one broken), 1 incline press, a broken hip sled, and less than 1500 lbs. of weight. He was "concerned" because the stuff I'm going to get is going to take up space he uses for elementary PE kids to play with scooters. What a joke!! Some people don't want to be good. The principal told me that the football budget was in the hole because of low gate receipts. I told him to sell tickets we need to win games, and to win games, we need to get stronger than our opponents, and to get stronger we need a respectable weight room. He agreed. So here we go! What would you do in my situation? A lot of people in the community have told me that I'm doing what needs to be done and to keep going. Needless to say that is what I'm going to do.First of all, if your principal stands by you, you'll be okay. Second, if you have ever read Gulliver's Travels, one of the great life-lessons in it comes when Gulliver is captured by the tiny people of Lilliput. Taken to their kingdom, he discovers to his amazement that as tiny as the people and their kingdom are, as little as they seem to have to fight over, as trivial as their concerns appear to him, they act exactly like people many times their size in the way they fight over whatever there is to fight over. Welcome to Lilliput, Coach. Now, consider yourself its agent of change, its guide to the bigger world of winners. Only the programs that are good year in and year out - Nebraska, Penn State, Florida State, etc. - resist the sort of change you want to bring about. In fact, they should. Their success is institutionalized. All too often, a coach comes into a solid program and makes an unnecessary change, seemingly just to put his own personal stamp on things. (One of the things that got University of Washington people upset with former Coach Jim Lambright was his decision to change the helmets from the traditional gold to purple. And one of new coach Rick Neuheisel's first moves was to go back to the gold helmets worn during Don James' regime.) But when you step into a losing situation and are trying to change an attitude, consider some people who have changed the attitude of entire states - partly with a change in their look. Make sure you tell the local folks about Hayden Frye and his makeover job at Iowa. Ask them if they remember how dismal the Hawkeyes were before he re-styled them in the image of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and added the fighting Hawk to the helmets. Ask people how successful Kansas State was before Bill Snyder brought in his work ethic and the new Wildcat logo. Ask them if they remember what happened when Gary Barnett added black to Northwestern's purple-and-white color scheme. Sure, those makeovers accompanied a lot of hard work and good coaching and good kids - but those coaches are convinced that their cosmetic changes helped bring about the major attitude changes necessary to turn those programs around. As for the rest of the Lilliputians who contune to resist your efforts, I think the best advice for dealing with them comes from Harry S. Truman, a President back when having "a set of stones" was still a requirement for the position: "I think the proper thing to do is to do what I think is right, and let them all go to hell." (Which, by the way, might very well apply to a certain junior high coach - a true Lilliputian. He ought to be reporting to you anyhow, or, better yet, spending his autumns getting his J.V. girls ready for basketball.)

64. Final Installment of the Bear Bryant-Bum Phillips numbering system (in Coach Bryant's own words)

8. When we speak of a man playing an 8 technique, we are speaking of a "true end," or a defensive end who lines up outside of the offensive end. The 8 man will be from one and one-half to three yards outside of the offensive end's normal position, with his inside foot forward, and his shoulders parallel with the line of scrimmage. If it is a straight back pass, the defensive end, without taking his eyes off the passer, will turn to his outside, and using a cross-over step will sprint to his outside trying to get width and depth to play the ball to his side. His depth should be 8-10 yards deep, similar to a linebacker's position covering the flat. He stops running when the quarterback stops to set up. When the ball is thrown, he sprints for the ball. If the play comes toward the 8 man, we want him to cross the line of scrimmage about two yards, getting set with his inside foot forward, shoulders parallel with the line of scrimmage, and playing the outside blocker. He is the outside contain man, and he must never permit the ball to get outside of him. He never makes the quarterback pitch on option plays. If it is a running pass toward him, he is the outside contain and rush man. If the flow goes away from him, he must make sure it is not a reverse play back to his side before he takes the proper angle of pursuit, which is through the area where the defensive safety man lined up originally.

9. The 9 technique splits the outside foot of the offensive end. He should line up 14 inches off the line of scrimmage, with most of the weight on his outside foot, which is back. When the ball is snapped, the 9 technique man will take a short step with his inside foot toward the offensive end, and at the same time he will deliver a hand or forearm shiver to the head of the offensive end. If the offensive end blocks in and the play comes toward him, the 9 man immediately looks for the near halfback or the trapper, expecting to be blocked by either offensive man. If a running play comes toward him and the quarterback is going to option the football, he must make the quarterback pitch the ball. If the quarterback is faking the ball to the fullback, the 9 man must "search" the fullback for the ball first. The 9 technique man never crosses the line of scrimmage. If the offensive play is a straight back pass, the 9 man delivers a blow to the end, and drops back two or three yards looking for the screen or short pass. He is in a position to come up and make the tackle if the quarterback gets outside of your outside rusher and the quarterback decides to run with the football. If the flow goes away, he is the trail man and has the same responsibilities as the 6 and 7 technique man, which I explained previously. The most important coaching point is that the man playing the 9 technique must deliver a good blow to the offensive end on every play.

63. Next Installment of the Bear Bryant-Bum Phillips numbering system (in Coach Bryant's own words):

4. The 4 technique man lines up head on the offensive tackle and abut one to one and one-half feet off the ball. He will have his feet staggered, and on the snap of the ball he is to play the offensive tackle with a quick hand or forearm flipper. If it is a running play toward him, he must whip the offensive tackle, be ready to stop the handoff, and help out on the off-tackle play. If it is a straight back pass, he will rush the passer from the inside. If the play goes away or to the far side, he will control the offensive tackle and pursue the football. On his angle of pursuit he should never go around the offensive tackle, but pursue the football going through the tackle's head.

5. The 5 technique man lines up on the outside eye of the offensive tackle, with the feet staggered (outside foot back in most cases). On the snap of the ball he employs a forearm flip charge into the tackle. As he makes contact, his back foot is brought up even with his front foot. He has 75% off-tackle responsibillity, and he should never be blocked by only one man. If it is a straight back pass, he should rush the passer from inside-out. If the play comes toward him, he should whip the tackle and make the play. He must be certain to keep the offensive blocker in front of him at all times as the 5 man will be eliminated from the play very easily if he tries to go around his blocker. If the play goes away from him, he must pursue the football. He is instructed not to cross the offensive line of scrimmage when employing a 5 technique.

6. The 6 technique player lines up head on the offensive end. If the end splits too far, the 6 man is to "shoot the gap." He is primarily responsible for keeping the offensive end from releasing quickly on passes, and he must keep the end from blocking the linebacker. He is responsible for the off-tackle play. Consequently he must not be blocked in our out. The game situation will determine how far he lines up off the ball, but it will usually vary from one to three yards. If the play is a straight back pass, he is responsible for rushing the passer fom the outside-in. If the passer runs out of the pocket, the 6 man must not permit him to get to the outside. He must either tackle the passer or force him to throw the football. If the play comes toward the 6 man, he whips the end with a flip or shiver charge, and helps out on both inside and outside. He never crosses the line of scrimmage unless it is a back-up pass. If it is an option play toward him, he must make the quarterback pitch the ball or he must tackle the quarterback. If the flow goes away from him, he trails the play. He should be as deep as the deepest man in the offensive backfield so he can contain the reverse play back to his side, not permitting the ball carrier to get outside of him.

7. The 7 tehnique player line up splitting the inside foot of the offensive end. He is responsible for forcing the end to reduce his offensive split. We want him to line up with the outside foot staggered, and he must never be blocked out by the offensive end. He has 75% inside responsibility and 25% outside responsibility. When the ball is snapped, he uses a hand or forearm flipper charge on the offensive end and brings his back foot up even with his front foot. His main responsibility is to whip the offensive end, and to close the off-tackle play. If the play is a straight drop back pass, he is the outside rusher and he must not permit the quarterback to get outside of him. If the play goes away from him, he is to trail the ball carrier. He plays just like the trail or chase man on the 6 technique. He should be as deep as the deepest offensive backfield man so he can contain any reverse play coming back to his side of the line. He should not let such a play get outside of his position.

To be continued...

62. (Next installment on the subject of the Bear Bryant-Bum Phillips numbering system): Description of the defensive techniques (in Coach Bryant's own words):

0- The defender lines up head on the offensive center. Depending on the situation, the distance he lines up off the football will vary. On a short yardage situation, he will line up close to the center's head. On a long yardage situation, normally he will be about one yard off the ball. He will use either a three- or four-point stance, with one foot staggered. His technique is to play the center's head with a quick hand shiver on the snap of the ball. When he makes contact with the center, he brings his back foot up so his feet are even with each other. If the quarterback goes straight back to pass, the 0 technique man is responsible for a draw play, and then he rushes the passer. If it is a run instead of a pass play, he will keep the center away from his blocking surface, not permitting himself to be tied up in the middle of the line, and he will pursue the ball taking his proper angle depending on the type of running play.

1- The main job of the player(s) employing the 1 technique is to control the offensive splits, forcing the guards to keep their splits to a minimum. He is also responsible for keeping the center off of the defensive linebacker. If both guards are playing in this technique, only one will "slam" the center, and the other will take a long step toward his guard, playing him from inside-out. He must always be aware of the trap coming from the inside, however. If the play is a back-up pass, he is responsible for the draw first, and rushing the passer second. If it is a running play, he will slam the center or guard and then pursue the football.

2. The 2 technique is similar to the 0 technique. One difference is the guard (note: you might now call him a tackle) is head on the offensive guard, instead of on the offensive center. The distance he lines up off the ball in a staggered stance will be determined by the tactical situation. On the snap of the ball he plays the guard with a hand shiver, and immediately locates the football. If it is a back-up pass and there is no man in a 0 or 1 technique, he will look for the draw play first, and then rush the passer. If it is a running play, he will look first toward the inside for a trap, and then pursue the football.

3. The 3 technique is similar to the 1 technique. The 3 man is responsible for keeping the offensive tackle's split cut down, and on occasion to keep the offensive guard or tackle from blocking the defensive linebacker. He, too, lines up with the feet slightly staggered, and about one foot off the ball. Depending on the defense, when the ball is snapped he will play either the guard or tackle with a quick flipper or shiver, preferably with the hands. He is to watch for the trap at all times. If the play is a straight drop back pass, he will rush the passer from the inside. If it is a running play, he will pursue the football

To be continued...

61. (Continuing with the Bear Bryant-Bum Phillips numbering system): The system was invented during the time when limited substitution meant that players went both ways, and coaches could not routinely shuttle players in and out with instructions. It enabled Coach Bryant's linebackers to call defenses on each side independent of one another ("3-7, 1-7", for example), in effect giving him a multiple system. "To eliminate any confusion," he wrote, "merely designate which side is to call first, and the other linebacker can adjust his call so (in the case of an even front) there is not a large gap in the middle of the defensive line." Basic rules for the linebackers were that they must have a man in, or capable of covering, every gap, and, to keep from having to cover too much territory themselves, they were never to call two successive numbers (2-3, or 6-7). Needless to say, Coach Bryant's linebackers were like quarterbacks on the field (quarterbacks also called their own plays back then) and had to know the strengths and weaknesses of every defense against every possible offensive set, as well as how to make changes in a hurry. After the players were lined up, if a linebacker wanted a man to change his charge half a man to the inside, he would add a zero to his number: calling out , say, "20" would instruct the man in a "2" technique to charge one-half man to his inside; adding a "1" to the man's number ("21") would instruct the man in a "2" technique to charge one-half man to his outside. By calling out the number of both men on his side ("21-71", for example), he would be able to change the charge of both of them.

60. (By popular request, expanding on #59 and the subject of the Bear Bryant-Bum Phillips numbering system): As Coach Bryant wrote, "Our present method is the simplest one I know for getting players into various defenses quickly with a minimum ampunt of talking. We feel it eliminates much confusion. We have found that players take a great deal of pride in learning only a few techniques, which they are able to execute well. We know it makes our jobs easier as coaches, and we can do a better job of coaching the boys."

For example, Coach Bryant wrote, whenever a coach talked to a tackle, he would be able to talk in terms of a particular technique (4, or 5, say), and the player would understand him immediately. When the coaches were discussing plays, or in a staff meeting, they could identify a particular technique immediately, and everyone would understand each other. Coach Bryant also discovered that the method was useful in making out his practice schedule, because he had only to specify, "End coach work on 7 technique," and his wishes would be immediately understood.

Using the system, tackles and ends could be taught individual techniques which, when used in combination with each other, would enable them to be deployed in a variety of defensive fronts. This was done by calling a two-digit number: the first digit described the tackles' alignment (and technique), and the second digit aligned the ends. The linebackers would make the calls, and align themselves accordingly.

Two examples shown here are "59" (an odd front, with the nose man not shown), and "27" (an even front).

More to come...

59. What are you referring to when you talk about a defensive end in a "6" or a "9" technique? It is football jargon that describes the place where a defensive lineman lines up, and, usually, the technique he employs.

This particular numbering system, which describes a man as a "2" or a "4" and so forth, is widely used among football coaches, and it was first described by the great Paul "Bear" Bryant in his 1960 book "Building a Championship Football Team," a subject he was well-qualified to write on.

I found Coach Bryant's description of the system and why he employed it to be especially interesting, in view of my efforts to encourage Double-Wing coaches to consider employing my offensive terminology because it's easy for kids to understand (the underlines below are mine):

"After coaching for a number of years," Coach Bryant wrote, "and always trying to find something that would make football easier to understand for the average player, I came upon a system of defensive numbering that has proven very valuable to me since then. In the past I have used many defenses. I always employed the technique of giving each defense a name. Most of the time the name had little in common with the defense, and this confused, rather than helped, the players. After discussing the possibility of the numbering system with my own and other college and high school coaches, while at Texas A & M in 1956 I finally came across a feasible plan for numbering defensive alignments. I must give credit to O. A. "Bum" Phillips, a Texas high school coach (the same Bum Phillips who would later coach the Houston Oilers and New Orleans Saints- HW), for helping work out the solution as he experimented with the numbering system with his high school football team.

"In the numbering of our defense now, we give each offensive man a number, as well as the gaps between offensive linemen." (See illustration)

Whether it was invented by Coach Bryant or Coach Phillips, and whatever its failings, it is the by far the best and most widely-accepted method devised for communicating to another football man, in as few words as possible, precisely what you mean. It's useful on both sides of the ball, enabling a defensive coach to align his personnel, or an offensive coach to describe how opposing defenses are lining up.

In the particular case you describe, a defensive end in a "6" technique is head-up on our TE; in a "9" technique he is on the TE's outside shoulder, or perhaps out in the gap between the TE and our wingback).

(I will write more about this if there is interest in it.)

58. What kind of a playbook do you give your kids? Although the first year I coached in Finland I mailed a playbook overseas so that my players could get started before I arrived, I have not handed out a playbook to a high school kid since 1978. There are lots of reasons for this, apart from the fact that based on what I know of the study habits of American kids, I doubt that most kids would spend much of their spare time reading a playbook anyhow. One major reason is that we have so many other excellent teaching tools at our disposal - charts, drawings, videos, demonstrations, hands-on instruction, walk-throughs, kids teaching kids, etc. - that a playbook pales in comparison to any of them. Every year one or two kids do ask me if they can have a playbook to take home. I think it's a cop-out, because they're usually kids who haven't been paying attention in practice. I tell them that they are going to have to learn it right out there on the field with everybody else - that we will be patient, and we will answer any questions they have, and just in case they don't have any questions for us, we'll have a few for them, in trying to find out what they don't know. For my purposes, a playbook is used as technical documentation for coaches. And then it is our job, as teachers, to find out the best way to get our point across to every kid, and the best way to determine whether he really did understand what we taught him. By the way, you want to listen carefully to the kids when you're trying to teach them something. They'll often give you some great ideas on better ways to explain yourself.

57. The speed burner I thought I had is not playing for me after all. That leaves me with a strong offensive line and virtually no backs from last year. I will probably have to move a couple of linemen (guards, who were good athletes and fast as far as guards go) to the the A and C. I will have to move a Tackle from last year to B back. We will be big as usual, but a lot slower. I think I am going to go with the no-huddle this year. Any suggestions? Sounds like your personnel will dictate your philosophy - you will be a ball-control team, whether you wanted to be or not. From personal experience, the lack of speed translates to far fewer yards per play. What somebody else does and gains 25 yards with because of some athlete's skills, you will have to work your tail off to do, and gain maybe five or six. Fewer yards per play means it takes you more plays to score. And the more plays you run, the more opportunities for something to go wrong - it's just simple probability. This really cuts down on your margin of error - you will have to pay special attention to play-calling and execution (drastically limit the number of plays you run), to ball-handling, and to penalty prevention. And, of course, to playing sound defense (you can't afford to get far behind) and the kicking game. As for the no-huddle, I'm not sure that in a situation such as you describe, you want to be picking up the pace. Since you will not have the potential to score quickly and come back from a couple of scores down, you will want to hang onto the ball as long as possible to keep it out of your opponents' hands. That includes the dead time between plays. It might be more analogous to basketball before the shot clock - make the first basket or two and then slow the game down.

56. What are the coaching points for the fullback and quarterback on the 6-G/7-G play? As those of you who have bought "Dynamics III" and/or the newest edition of the playbook - or have attended a clinic in the last year - are aware, for the past two seasons we have had our fullback round off his course, with the result that he now hits the line square, and more often than not cuts back against the grain. It is a perfect complement to the power game, in that it takes advantage of a defense that flies outside to stop the super power. It is not necessary for the fullback to deepen, but it is necessary for him to slow his initial operation down some. We tell him to keep his shoulders square and his toes pointed straight ahead, while he takes an open step (with the playside foot), then a cross-over step. At that point, he will be as wide as he needs to be (watch him here - he will have a tendency to want to run wider). The coaching words we use are "Open, Crossover, Hit the Hole Square." The main thing for the fullback is not to be in a hurry, to wait for the ball but not look for it - instead, to look for daylight. The QB should reverse pivot deep and just past the center line - on a 6-G we tell him to step with his left foot at 5 o'clock. The main thing for him is not to crowd the fullback by pivoting in front of him, into his path. Continue widening to make the handoff, then continue outside after the handoff as if running an option.

55. I notice on your tapes that your teams don't sprint to the line of scrimmage. Why is that? I have always been a believer in hustling up to the line. In my clinic talks, in talking about getting the most out of your double wing, I refer to "Red Light" areas, meaning things you'd better put a stop to (such as wide splits) because you're not actually going to be running our offense, "Yellow Light" areas (such as the way you teach blocking) in which you might do better doing it our way, and "Green Light" areas (such as the stance of the wingbacks) in which we may differ, but it's a coach's prerogative, and it may not make the slightest bit of difference. I put going up to the line (although the way we do it is important to me) in the latter category. I like the walk-to-the-line concept for four main reasons: (1) it gives our kids more time to think about - even to talk about - their assignments as they walk to the line. It's like giving some kids a little extra time on a test. I've seen a little extra time make a big difference for some kids in the classroom. For some of the kids on my offensive unit, I believe it has made a similar difference. I don't care if they're asking about assignments on their way to the line. It's better than sprinting out of the huddle confused. It's nice if they know their assignment when they're in the huddle; but it's crucial that they know it when they're at the line. When we notice that they're just sauntering to the line, not using the time productively, we deal with it; (2) It enables us to "shorten the game," whenever that's important (you ever notice how fast punting time comes around when you're running a no-huddle and you throw three straight incompletions?); (3) I have been coaching at a small school the past three years, and most of my kids have gone two ways. They get all the exercise they need once the ball is snapped. I don't particularly need them doing wind sprints between plays; and (4) I think our kids develop a certain swagger that reflects their confidence in their ability to move the ball.

The flip side, of course, is that it we have to make sure we get the play in quickly enough to avoid a delay penalty, and, as most coaches believe , there are certain virtues in displaying hustle.

There certainly are times when we sprint to the LOS - perhaps to conceal an unbalanced set , or just to catch the defense loafing after they have become accustomed to our slower pace- and there are also times when we run from no huddle, mainly to change the pace of the game.

54. In what order would you install the offense with a new team?

(1) Tight 88 (no motion, no pulling linemen - just to get the hang of the numbering)
(2) Tight 88 power (to get the backside linemen into it - no motion, though)

(3) Tight 88 super power (to work on the QB toss & turn - still no motion)

(4) Tight RIP 88 super power (FINALLY - motion. But only a little bit.)

(5) Tight LIZ 99 super power (Have your G's, T's TE's and A & C teach the flip side to each other)

(6) Tight RIP 6-G (same action as 88 but hits inside- easier to teach than the trap)

(7) Tight RIP 47-c (same basic QB action as 88 Super Power & 6-G, but he keeps spinning)

(8) Tight 2 Wedge

(9) Tight RIP 3 Trap 2 (Optional with younger kids)

53. I have decided to switch to your double wing but still keep using the Delaware Wing-T terminology that we have been using. Do you foresee any problems? No. I'm sure that you can make the move fairly seamlessly. I can see only two minor problems that I'm sure you can deal with: (1) you'll have to translate our playbook into your terminology, when it would be awfully easy just to be able to make copies of it for your staff's use; (2) communication with other double wing coaches will require a "bridge language" so you can understand each other. My system is definitely a lot easier to grasp when you're teaching it for the first time, so I can see it being of great value in your youth or middle-school programs. I would also suggest that if you ever take another job and have to start teaching it from scratch, you consider making the switch, for the sake of your new assistants and new players - especially the youth coaches and players. It will be uncomfortable for you for a while, but it will be worth it. I'll draw a parallel: if you're familiar with the early DOS computer operating systems, you might remember all those key strokes you had to memorize in order to give commands. They were a pain to learn, but once you became familiar with them, you could get pretty good at using your computer. But not everybody was willing or able to learn the commands well enough to take full advantage of computing. And then along came the Mac operating system, and then Windows, and people discovered that using a computer didn't have to be that complicated. Some of us who had made the effort to learn the key-driven commands were a little ticked - admit it - that thanks to the relative simplicity of these new operating systems, rank newcomers could now do everything we had been doing, without having to go to all the trouble we'd gone to. But finally, grudgingly, we also made the switch - and discovered that it was well worth it. I think we can all learn from Mac and Microsoft - at some point, we need to consider making the move from something we're comfortable with (but might be difficult for others to learn) to an easier-to-teach, easier-to-learn, easier-to-use operating system.

52. I have 4 decent offensive linemen; the fifth is not very good. I have one good tight end and a good split end. What is the best way to use my personnel? This does present challenges for any offense. The immediate suggestion that comes to mind would be "Tackle Over" and "Tackle Under." On the short side, you would have a guard and your lone tight end. On the strong side, you would have a spread (split) end, and in tight, next to your strongside guard, both tackles. This really doesn't ask a lot of your outside tackle - the one who isn't quite so good. All that he will ever have to do is block down, wall off the inside LBer, seal down in the wedge, post up for a double-team, or shoeshine on plays away. He ought to be able to do those things. He never has to pull. And he never has to drive block a defender all by himself. And since that position isn't eligible anyhow, there's no loss involved in replacing a tight end with a tackle. On the shortside, your TE should be able to at least "X" block with the guard, because you do want to be able to run the "Lead" play (shown in "Dynamics II") in between them; otherwise, he isn't being asked to do anything that he doesn't do in a balanced line situation. To the strong side, you can run almost everything. Super Power would probably best be run as "Super-O", but if your QB can run, you can run Power Keep (shown in Dynamics II); to the short side, besides the Lead play, you can, surprisingly, run the Super Power (Dynamics III). You can run traps and counters either way. Rolling out to the strong side, you pick up an extra protector; with "Roar" and "Loud" motion, you can create a "trips" situation to either side. There will be a little extra teaching, however, when you flip the formation, because both of your ends and both of your tackles will have to change sides (make sure that the lesser of the two tackles is always on the outside).

51. I've been coaching youth ball for about 14 yrs. They have built a new H.S. in our area, scheduled to open Fall of 1999. The football program is brand new,the coach top notch. I've expressed interest in being an assistant coach on his freshman team. I've never interviewed for a Assistant H.S. coaching position before. Any words of wisdom would be appreciated. I tell any aspiring coach the same thing. First of all, Don't bother trying to impress the head coach with how much football you know. You'll just bore him. And don't apologize because your only experience is at the youth level. That's coaching, too. I'm sure he would be happy to have the former defensive coordinator from a Division-! college step into his program and take over his defense, but the reality is that what most of us need is people we can trust to do what we want, with a minimum of supervision. Impress him, instead, with your:

Dependability
Willingness to work hard

Willingness to take correction

Eagerness to learn his system

Ability to teach his system

Enthusiasm for the game

High personal standards

Ability to get kids to respect you

Ability to get kids to love the game and play hard

Utter loyalty

I have been very fortunate in having assistants who measured up in all those areas. Lack of any one of those qualities would have been a first-round knockout for me.

Notice that football knowledge is nowhere on the list. It's helpful, of course, but if a man has all those other qualities, I believe that I am enough of a teacher myself to bring him up to speed in the X's and O's. If he doesn't, I couldn't care less how much football he knows.

But if you are the kind of guy who possesses the qualifications I listed above, I can't imagine any coach in America who couldn't find a use for you on his staff. The trick is to make your qualities known to him. Sure, you can tell him how loyal you are, how hard-working, etc., etc. But if he's like most people, he's going to want proof.

In football, from the highest level to the lowest, from professional to high school, this most commonly takes the form of a phone call from another coach who knows you both, and can vouch for you. Maybe this is because it takes a coach to know what another coach wants, or maybe it's because, from my experience, football coaches are unusually trustworthy people, and we can count on another coach's word.

Ideally, you want to find someone who knows you and knows him, too. The best reference is someone he knows and respects; the next best is someone he knows of and respects; and the third best is someone in some kind of football position elsewhere whom he doesn't know but whose opinion he might be inclined to value just because he is a football guy.

In your particular case, if you have no football reference, parents of kids you have worked with might be of some use as references. You want to be very wary, though, of creating the impression that you are bringing your own constituency along - that those kids have some special loyalty to you, and that somewhere down the line, you might be used by the parents as their pipeline to the innermost workings of the program. (It's that loyalty thing again.)

Another thing that's fairly common in climbing the football ladder is "working for a reference." In other businesses, people who do this are called interns. At the college football level they're called graduate assistants, at the high school level, volunteer assistants. They often work their buns off, but sometimes that's the best way to get a paying job.(Who knows you better than someone you've already been working for?) I can tell you that at my last program, I had a couple of volunteer assistants, and they knew that they were being given a chance to demonstrate their qualifications, and if they did, they were the first guys in line for any paid position that opened up.One of them made the step up after one year of showing me what he could do. If the personal reference route isn't possible, then a good way to convince the coach of your worth is to offer to prove yourself as a volunteer assistant.

One final word of advice. Do not offer your services and then throw roadblocks in the way - "I won't be available until after Labor Day"..."I have to work Friday nights"..."I can't make all the practices"... "I'm always on call"...etc., etc. Clear your schedule first. He's looking for help, not another personnel problem to have to deal with. From the sound of your letter, I wish you lived closer.

50. Anything else I can do about those ends attacking my fullback (See #49) ? A couple of things will help. Stepping your playside wingback up on the line just before the other wing goes in motion - or lining him up there to begin with - will move the defensive force man a little wider (we call this "Uptight" or "Back-off" and it's shown in "Dynamics IV" and in the 2nd Edition of my playbook). Coach John Irion, of Queensbury, New York has found that 49-C and 58-C, which send the fullback in the opposite direction and surprise the end with a block by the backside guard, proved to be a good way to deal with that tactic,

REGARDING #49 BELOW, I HAVE BEEN ASKED ABOUT THE RULE THAT PROHIBITS DEFENDERS FROM DIVING AT A BLOCKER'S KNEES. IT IS RULE 9, SECTION 3 ("ILLEGAL BLOCKING") AND IT IS QUITE CLEAR AND QUITE SPECIFIC: ARTICLE 1 says: "Blocking by a player either on offense or defense is illegal when it is (d) prohibited contact, such as blocking below the waist, chop blocking, etc." ARTICLE 2 says "A player shall not block an opponent below the waist except (a) in the free-blocking zone when the contact meets the requirements of 2-17 (diving at a blocker's knees does not); (b) to tackle a runner or player pretending to be a runner."

49. Another team's defensive ends attacked my kick-out blockers by diving at their knees. My guard was seriously injured by this tactic. I am sure it is being taught because they did it on both ends of the line. I told the kid's parents that they ought to sue. (This actual situation was described at a recent clinic.) I assume the other coach draws the line at giving his kids brass knuckles. But any coach who teaches or condones illegal tactics that (1) expose your kids to unnecessary injury , and/or (2) deprive your kids of a fair contest deserves whatever he gets. He is disgracing our game and our profession. At a time when mamas think that football is too brutal for their little boys, a guy who deliberately teaches or condones illegal, dangerous tactics just to further his own selfish ambitions is hurting all of us. And don't let him hand you the crap that, unbeknownst to him, one of his assistants taught the kids those things. As the head coach, he is ultimately responsible for anything and everything those assistants teach. You owe it to our game to run that guy's sorry butt out of the business. Fast. But don't take it from me. Just in case you think I need to get down off my high horse on this one, take it from the Texas High School Coaches Association, the nation's largest. Texas coaches pride themselves on their professionalism, and on the respect in which they are held in their communities. This professionalism has at its core a Code of Ethics to which they adhere without question. They police themselves, and from what I have been told, they do an exceptional job of it. Here are some rather telling excerpts from the THSCA's Code of Ethics (the underlines are mine): ARTICLE 1- OBLIGATIONS AND RESPONSIBILITIES: "In becoming a member of the THSCA, a coach assumes certain obligations and responsibilities to the game one coaches, to the players, and to one's fellow coaches. It is essential that every member of the profession be constantly aware of these obligations and responsibilities with the purpose in mind that the coaching profession will always remain an honorable calling and that each member is to conduct himself in such a manner as to maintain the dignity and decency of the profession." It gets better. "In teaching the game of one's choice, the coach must realize that there are certain rules designated to protect the players, and provide common standards for determining a winner and loser. Any attempts at deliberate unsportsmanlike conduct have no place in the coaching profession. Any coach guilty of such teaching does not have the right to be called a coach." Period. End of story. Thanks a lot, y'all.

48. Very informative site, I learned a lot of new ideas. I was wondering, how do you handle stemming by the defensive front? My 0-linemen were very confused by this tactic and it cost us some bad plays. Are there any blocking schemes or plays that I should look into? I would appreciate your help. (Stemming, for those not familiar with the term, is movement by defenders from one defensive look into something different, sometime between the time your team gets set and the time you snap the ball.) There are three ways to deal with this. (1) have blocking rules that deal with such contingencies. If I teach kids properly, they are prepared to adjust and block someone other than the man they thought they'd be blocking - I always ask a player, "who will you probably block?" (As an English grammarian, I know I should have said "whom", but I want him to be aware of all possibilities); (2) we all get into a certain snap-count rhythm occasionally, which helps us avoid penalties, but also allows defenses the luxury of anticipating our snap count, so you do need to have a "gotcha" snap count that comes as they are stemming; that is one reason why I don't like my offensive linemen spending time "flexing" - while they're going through that essentially meaningless little ritual, the defense is jumping all over the place; (3) you need to have the ability to get right up to the line, get set right away, and snap the ball on the first sound, or even on the "goose" of the center. A defensive team that is getting ready to move sideways while you are calling signals is not in a good position to handle a play run directly at them before they've even had a chance to move. For me, that play is called "Tight 2 Wedge - on Go," and defenders had better be dug in - and not ready to jump sideways - if they expect to stop its surge. We run perhaps 1/3 of our plays on the first sound ("Go!"), one of the most popular of which is the wedge. It is a very old football play - no doubt considered "obsolete" in the eyes of certain younger coaches with no understanding of or reverence for the history of our game. I am very proud of the contribution I have made to the preservation and propagation of the wedge, one of football's truly great plays. The wedge is tough enough to stop when you are prepared for it it, and it can be downright nasty when you are not.

47. What should you look for if you're having problems with the center-QB exchange? First make sure that the quarterback's hands are far enough under center, and that there is a tight seal between the center's tail and the quarterback's upper hand - "the center sits on the quarterback's hand, and the quarterback tries to lift the center." Then, depending on how you want the ball delivered, make sure that the quarterback's hands are together with fingers spread, and that the center snaps the ball hard enough. From that point, if the ball is not being exchanged properly, most of my problems have resulted from (1) the quarterback bringing his hands apart just as the ball arrives, and (2) the center lifting his tail off the quarterback's upper hand just as he delivers the ball. We solve (1) by making our quarterback hook the thumb of his lower hand over the thumb of the upper hand, and watching carefully to make sure he doesn't unhook them. You have to stay on top of this. We solve (2) by making sure our center "stays in his stance" with knees bent and heels on the ground as he delivers the ball - to check for that, we look to see if his tail is shooting skyward (sometimes accompanied by a ducking of his head) as he snaps. This means he is getting up on his toes and straightening his knees in his delivery - resulting in a loss of the "seal" between his tail and the quarterback's hand.

46. Are there any particular problems that this offense presents for officials? Yes. In your pre-game conference, there are two categories of things that you need to alert officials to: (1) Things they shouldn't call, and (2) things they should. In the first category, you need to make certain that officials know that your backside end on power plays is clearly within the free-blocking zone (our tight splits assure that) and therefore his "shoeshine" block is legal; you need to show them that your wingbacks are not assisting the runner, but are actually pushing on their own tackles (then get on those wingbacks to make sure they hustle, because if they don't , they could wind up pushing on your B-Back); advise the officials, especially if they have never seen the wedge before, not to blow the whistle too soon. In the second category, remind them that it is illegal for defensive people to grab your pulling linemen; remind them also that it is just as illegal for a defensive end to throw at your B-Back's knees (which they rarely call) as it is for your B-Back to throw at the defensive end's knees (which they'll call in a heartbeat). We occasionally see that tactic. I can't be sure it's being coached, but I have my suspicions. It is very dangerous, and I would be rather upset if I thought someone was teaching his kids to injure mine. On a lighter note, Coach Eddie Cahoon, in North Carolina said that the first time he ran the offense, the officials kept telling his linemen not to line up so deep. He had to call time out and tell the officials thanks all the same, but, "that's the way I want them to line up."

45. What are some of the keys to running a successful ball-control offense? Precision execution is always important, of course. But the main thing about running a ball-control offense is that you simply can't afford to fall too far behind - it simply takes you too long to score. And the way you fall behind is by not hanging onto the ball. (1) You must not give up the ball prematurely. You are probably not going to lose the ball on an interception or an errant pitch, but you must pay special attention to ball handling and ball carrying. If you're the kind of coach who can watch a fumble on the practice field and chuckle about it as if it's no big deal, you are going to discover that your players don't respect the ball, either; (2) You can't afford a first-and-15. That situation usually results from linemen not being set, two backs moving at the snap, or just plain jumping the gun. You have to be a bear about that; and (3) you have to avoid the call that makes no sense. This is totally your responsibility. You'd be amazed how often otherwise smart coaches will have a nice drive going, and suddenly come up with something that defies explanation - and costs them a down, or worse. My guess would be that if you are getting the job done in those three areas, you probably won't fall far behind very often.

44. How many different plays do you want to have in your arsenal when you head into a game? It is a real temptation to put in all sorts of plays for every possible situation. I don't want to close any doors on plays that might be successful for us, but how do I know if they will be useful/successful unless we rep them a lot? I guess I am somewhat of a purist and I don't want to get too far away from the Tight set for very long. When is too much too much? I think that after a game you should get out your ready list list and take a look at the plays you didn't use in the game. Then, subtract from them the plays that you had to have for "insurance" purposes (in case a key guy got hurt, or you fell way behind, etc.), and what you are left with is chicken fat - stuff that you worked on in practice, but didn't use in the game. Stuff that cost you practice time but didn't do a thing to justify the time you spent on it. I rarely add more than one new play for any specific game, and the chances are very good that we will have run it in practice for a couple of weeks until I have enough confidence in it to run it in a game. (I want to know everything I can about a play's downside, and I will never run a play in a game that I haven't seen repped successfully over and over in practice.) Actually, our variations more often than not entail nothing more than changes in formation, rather than new plays. Often, a new look is dictated out of necessity, perhaps because of a personnel emergency. I don't consider use of multiple formations to be overload in the way that introducing entirely new plays is. In terms of what we ask our linemen to do, it is pretty much the same thing, over and over. This past season, for example, we were forced to run a fair amount from the Stack-I, which, while it looks considerably different from our basic double-tight, double-wing, didn't affect our linemen in the slightest.

43. One problem for us with the double wing has been offensive line play. Our offensive line coach insists on teaching the "two hand punch" style of line play, but all my research, including conversations with other double wing coaches, seems to indicate that shoulder blocking is the way to go with this offense. Our O-line coach has been coaching for some time and I think our head coach is somewhat reluctant to ask him to make such a dramatic change in his teaching. If the head coach agrees with you that the change is in the best interests of the team but is reluctant to ask an assistant to make the change, that is truly unfortunate. For him and for the program. But it sounds more as if you have been trying to convince him of the best way to run the system, and you just haven't been persuasive enough. On my first video, and in my "Installing the System" video, I show how we teach the blocking that I believe in. For a while there, I treated the way people taught blocking in our system as something of a coach's option, but as I get around and see and talk to people, I am convinced that "shove" blocking has no place in our system. (1) We are not into getting separation from defenders. Quite the opposite, our aim is to get into defenders, and stay stuck to them while we drive them. (2) I believe that putting pads on pads allows us to deliver a more forceful blow, because it's more like tackling, only without the arms (See point #6). (3) I also believe that with our emphasis on angle bocking and gaining leverage on defenders, our type of blocking is the only way to assure that a player's helmet is on the correct side (which is the essence of leverage). (4) Our kids have not been particularly strong, and I think our style of blocking neutralizes much of the strength advantage a defender may have, because we are using our legs more than we are using our upper body. (5) You might like this, too: now that the rules have practically legalized holding by letting people use their hands, we almost never get a holding call, at least on running plays, because we keep our hands in. (When we do get one, it's usually when we are pass-blocking, and using the hands.) (6) Finally, I subscribe to Woody Hayes' thinking, which I cite from the 1975 "Kellogg's Coach of the Year" Clinic Manual: "You could teach blocking and tackling together because they're almost the same thing. You just get rid of those arms when blocking." That, in fact, is exactly what we do, and the pancake drill shown in "Dynamics of the Double Wing" is a key to our teaching. This could be a tough one, though, because if you've been reading this page, you know how I feel about loyalty. Whatever happens, you mustn't do anything to promote staff dissension or undermine the head coach. It's his ultimate decision what will be taught, and how it will be taught. Incidentally, I happened to see a posting on a web forum where the best thing a defender of push and shove blocking could say about it was that it makes it "easier to hold." Excuse me, but isn't that like saying that filing down cleats to needle points makes it "easier to run on wet grass?" What a wonderful thing to be teaching kids. Let's go get them phony ID's, and while we're at it, the answers to the math final, too. Call me self-righteous, but I'm not gonna cheat ya to beat ya.

42. One of the things we haven't done well with the DW is get our motion down properly so it is timed right. Have you ever considered running some plays that require motion, without motion? Like the Super Power? I know it takes some work but what are your thoughts on this? There never seems to be any consistency with different wingbacks and motion timing. You can easily see this on our films. Although I believe we did better with it this year, one of our WB's just got too deep, too soon on Super Powers. As a matter of fact, most of the motion that we use is so quick and fast that we probably could run the super power without any motion. I do know that when I have first installed the offense with youth teams, I've advised them to start running it without motion at first, and gradually add motion. Running much of the offense without motion certainly does deprive many defenses of what they consider to be a valuable key. The only time motion is really critical is when you need to get the wingback into a pattern or into position to make a block. We have successfully run everything but the super power without motion, and your question makes me wonder why not the super power, too.

41. Should you fit your offense to your personnel or vice-versa? The classic argument has always been - do you run something that you don't know or believe in, but your kids are able to run, or something that you do know and believe in but don't have the talent to run effectively? My thinking is you need to find an offensive system that covers both sides of the argument. You simply can't be going out and learning a new system every year. On the other hand, you don't want to be pinned down in a rigid system that this year's crop of kids clearly can't run. Frankly, at risk of being accused of shameless huckstering, I think one of the strongest arguments in favor of our double-wing system is its flexibility - its ability to adjust to the personnel we have on hand. There have been years when we have run mostly double-tight, others when we ran mostly "spread" (two wide-outs), still others when we ran mostly unbalanced. Some years our leading rusher is our A-Back, some years our B-Back, other years our C-Back. In 1996, it was our QB. Whatever it is that you run, listen to what Dr. Ken Keuffel, single-wing expert and legendary coach at New Jersey's Lawrenceville School - and a wiser head than most of us - has to say on the subject: "Adjustment to personnel is really the name of the game in high school."

40. What do you do when they try to "wrong-shoulder" your B-Back on power plays? Wrong-shouldering - "trapping the trapper" as it's sometimes called - basically requires the defender at the corner to get his "helmet in the hole", when that is the very same thingwe want our B-Back to do. In other words, he is going to jam up the hole by taking our B-Back's inside-out leverage away from him. This entails certain risks for the defense. First of all, the B-Back's inside-out angle is pretty sharp, making it very difficult to wrong-shoulder him in the first place. But if it should happen, it has to occur close to the line of scrimmage - that's the only way that defender will ever get his head across the B-Back's face. In that case, our running back - led by the QB - will bounce it outside. If this persists, though, we would be crazy not to run a sweep, because if a defender is fighting that hard to the inside, he makes himself vulnerable to any kind of block - reach or down - by our playside wingback. (Which is a key to running a successful sweep.)

39. If you were trying to make a football player out of someone who had never played the game before, what is the very first thing you would teach him? I once found myself on the other side of the world, the only American in town, and in the position you describe, having to teach the game - from scratch - to 30 adults. They were good athletes who had played other sports, but few of them had ever even seen a game of football, much less played in one. Dispensing with all the jokes about making sure they put on their girdles with the tail pads in the back, my starting point was the hit position - the break-down position, if you will. Everything starts from there - blocking, tackling, block protection, basic movements. To be a football player, a guy has to learn to make plays with head and eyes up, chin and chest out, tail down and back arched, toes and knees straight ahead, "vees in the knees." And he has to be able to get into this position - in a hurry - from any spot he might find himself in. I don't think it's possible to overemphasize this point. It's one of the many things I learned from my seven years overseas that have affected the way I teach the game over here.

38. One of the biggest problems we have in our area is the kids being talked into specializing in one sport. Baseball has started a fall league, but basketball is the worst with their summer leagues, church leagues, and you name it leagues. These all run into football season. The basketball coaches put pressure on the kids to play in these leagues. The kids feel if they don't the coach will not start them when basketball season comes. I'm putting a monthly news letter together for our team and need some input. If you get a chance could you please let me know where to find quotes, articles, statistics, anything that would help convince the kids to play more than one sport? (A youth coach) Coach, we could spend a lot of time on this subject . We football coaches are at an enormous disadvantage, because ours is essentially the only sport that a kid can't play in the off-season. Football players work at getting better, but they can't play their sport. In fact, what football players need to do in the off-season is totally different from what they will do on the field, and is often sheer drudgery. Not only that, but it requires them to think beyond today. Contrast that with what other sports offer in the off-season - games, trips to weekend tournaments out of town, trophies, etc., etc., and football is at a real disadvantage. Throw in unscrupulous coaches who know full well that a kid is going nowhere, but drop subtle hints to the kid and his parents that he could win a scholarship or sign a pro contract - if he works at it year-round. Add parents who invest time travelling to "elite" tournaments, spend money on camps and equipment, and enjoy bragging about their son, and you've got a tough nut to crack. Try these quotes that I had on my old site: From Mark McGwire :"I wish I saw more kids playing everything. But today's kids are so serious with one sport. They play year-round and get burnt-out." or this from Ricky Henderson: "I've learned life from football. Game time? I worked on that in practice. I learned that in high school. "The Fourth Quarter," we called it. When we were dead-tired and could barely move, that's when we would go practice the Fourth Quarter, That's one of those things you learn and never lose." PS- walking around town yesterday , I saw a couple of adults and a bunch of kids out on a field - hitting baseballs! I mean, this is Washington! We don't exactly grow grapefruits up here in February as it is, and it was raining besides.

37. Is a nose considered to be a nose when he is in either of the "A" gaps? This is kind of academic because we don't tell the center specifically to block a"nose man". On a typical play, his assignment might be to block ON or AWAY - AFTER THE SNAP! (This is crucial! We want our kids to realize that things can change after the snap. We always check assignments by asking "who will you probably block on this play?" And we discuss with them the things that could happen to change that picture. The fact that our linemen need to "read" is another reason why we have them back off the ball, and why they are somewhat back in their stances with their eyes up.)

To illustrate, let's suppose a play is going to the RIGHT and there is a man lined up "ON" (on the nose). The center knows that he will probably wind up blocking that guy. His ON rule means he will block that man - if he charges straight ahead. If that man should slant LEFT (away from playside), he will still be taken care of by the center, who will now be applying his AWAY rule. If, however, that man slants RIGHT (to playside), he is no longer either ON or AWAY. Neither one of the center's conditions applies. As far as the center is concerned, he is off the screen - there will be somebody else for the center to block. What that "nose man" has now done is attack the playside guard or the playside guard's inside gap, both of which are normally the responsibility of the playside guard. If that guard happens to be pulling playside on a "G" block, the slanting "nose" would normally be the responsibility of the playside tackle or even a pulling backside guard.

If no one lines up on the center in the first place, that's fairly easy. No one on? Block AWAY. But who? Chances are, it's a man lined up on the backside guard. But not so fast - what if an inside linebacker blitzes? If he gets to the center first, he becomes the man on or away. Maybe the man on the playside guard slants into the center. That makes him a man "ON."

So we don't really lock onto a specific man, wherever he goes or whatever he does. The key thing to get across to your kids is the idea that things are probably going to be as they appear. But don't count on it.

36. Hi Coach: I Have your tape and playbook. They are excellent. I have one question. In your blocking rules. What does shoeshine mean? Thanks for your help - I am afraid I'm guilty of a cardinal sin of coaching - assuming that a term which I understand and use makes sense to someone else, and I appreciate the chance to explain. The term "shoeshine" is a bit of coaching shorthand that I use to tell the backside ends on power plays and certain of our counters to cut off chasing backside defensive linemen. We want them to "throw low," throwing their backside arm across the far knee of anyone over our tackle- as if they had a cloth in that hand and they're rubbing it across the top of the guy's shoes. It's just a descriptive term, and it makes perfect sense to me, but I often wonder how much sense it makes to kids who grow up wearing sneaks and have probably never seen a pair of shoes being shined. But it does streamline things when a kid says "what do I do?" and all I have to say is "shoeshine."

35. What do you look for in a center? This is the spot for the big kid who may not be all that athletic but he's smart and he's responsible. Big helps, because otherwise a big nose man who can drive your guy into the backfield can cause you problems with your pulling backside guys. Our backup center last year was 355 pounds, and had some difficulty running, but nobody was going to move him. Strength helps, but it is secondary. Athletic ability is always helpful, of course, but since he doesn't operate in a large area, he doesn't have to be all that mobile. Dependability is crucial. Everything starts with a good snap at the right time. If he is your deep snapper, that's good, too, because that opens up direct-snap possibilities. (By the way, I cover my criteria for every position in my playbook.)

34. What are the keys to making a highlights video? Whether you're talking about shooting for a highlights video, for instructional purposes, or just at-home "shoot and show," it helps to think of the term "GIGO." It's an acronym we used at IBM, back in the Stone Age of computers, and it stands for "Garbage In - Garbage Out" - in other words, the quality of your finished product won't be any better than the quality of what went into it. (You may be familiar with an old coaching truism that means basically the same thing. Something about making chicken salad. )

In video production terms, it means that unless you start out with good quality, well-shot video, no amount of special equipment or skillful editing will save your finished product - your highlights tape. GIGO.

Let's assume you're planning on a post-season highlights video. Your first job has got to be to concentrate your efforts on making sure you start out with good game footage. That means two essential ingredients: a good camera and a good videographer. (If you were to ask me which is more important, I'd be inclined to say the person behind the camera. I've seen an awful lot of bad game videos, and it's rarely the fault of the camera.) If you're like me and you've got both, you're blessed. If not, you're at least fortunate that it's the off-season, and you've still got time to check out cameras, and find and train somebody. I'll talk a little more about both as we go along. See VIDEO PRODUCTION PAGE

(The term "footage," by the way, has no relevance whatsoever to videotape, even though we all use it anyhow; it's a holdover from the days when we used real film, which was sold - and processed - by the foot. Ever notice how many of us old geezers still say we "look at film" when in fact most of us haven't threaded a Kodak Analyst in over 15 years?)

33. Did the thought of moving your fullback up tight and delaying on the trap play make you a little bit squeamish at first? No sqeamishness whatsoever on my part - I had already seen it work against me. But I can't speak for the fullbacks. That's because the major trick is convincing the B-backs that it is more like a draw play, and that they've got to be patient; you've probably noticed that the "Installing the System" video deals with that issue - where I stand behind the B-Back and hold onto his belt until it's time for him to go. I always joke about it with him first, figuring maybe I can make him feel so squeamish about what this old guy's doing behind him that he'll do whatever it takes to get me out of there.

32. We are not going to be very good up front this year. Should we consider the double wing? You're handicapped in any offense if your linemen aren't very good. Nevertheless, if you're aware of what linemen do in a wing-t attack, you know that there is very little straight-ahead, base blocking required. Our double wing is based on wing-t blocking principles, which means we do a lot of double-teaming, blocking down, trapping, kicking out, leading through, walling off, cut ting off --- all techniques which give our lineman a certain mechanical advantage - leverage - against a bigger man. (Especially when you combine the advantageous blocking angles we give them with the way the deception in the backfield sets defenders up.)

And the blocking techniques required are all things that you can help a kid get better at. I don't know about you, but if I've got a kid who is unable to drive block a guy over him who is just plain better than he is, I'm not able to help him much. I do think that if you know what you're teaching, you can show a kid what the problem is, and, more importantly, show him a way to fix it.

We put a lot of stress on correct line techniques. We get into some pretty fine detail. Kids can relate to the need for this. Even if it's only through the movies, most of them have some awareness of the martial arts, and so they can be sold on the idea that if they learn and work on the basic skills and are disciplined in their application, they can beat a bigger, stronger guy.

On top of all that, we run a heck of a wedge. It can get three or four of your guys on one defender. It's a thing of beauty.

31. What are the advantages of running from Spread and Slot formations? For me, Spread and Slot are useful adjuncts to our basic Tight set. They are both useful in long-yardage situations - those occasions where you are most likely to pass and not care about hiding it (even though you're probably going to go ahead and run anyhow.) And if you're hopelessly behind late in the game - it happens to everybody - it at least looks to the people in the stands as if you're doing something special. Maybe you really are.

Spread is the base formation of Tiger Ellison's Run and Shoot , which was really hot when I moved to the Northwest in 1975. (That was mainly because of the spectacular success out here of Mouse Davis, who always insisted on calling it the Double Slot when he was at Portland State.) I ran Run and Shoot until 1982, and even after switching to the Delaware Wing-T, I still retained the Spread formation. Mostly it was for desperation situations. I also used it to isolate a good receiver - or to hide a lesser player. I have used it to do both. (The latter use would, I think, would be of special interest to youth coaches who have to get everybody into the game.)

Strategically, Spread can help your running game, because it can create a situation where the defense covers your two wide-outs with three men: they are sure to cover your spread ends with two defensive backs, and, because of the danger of the post route (assuming you can throw it), they are also apt to deepen their safety to the point where he is no longer a factor in run support. They may even loosen up their outside linebackers to help with the slant (assuming you can throw it). In any event, it is now your 9-man running offense going up against their 8-man run defense. Our biggest obstacle here has been an inability to throw and catch well enough to justify spending time on this approach. (Notice that I have been assuming a 3-deep secondary and an 8-man front; if by some good fortune they take your passing threat seriously and play you with a four deep, you are now 9-against-7 with your running game. Go to it.)

Slot formation seems to have been developed to its utmost by Coach Gordie Gillespie at College of St. Francis, in Joliet, Illinois. In 1992, when Gordie was in Portland for a clinic, I had him over to my house for dinner, and afterward, we watched each other's tapes and were amazed at the similarites in what we were doing. I am proud to say that I have used some of Gordie Gillespie's ideas. I'm told that there are still high schools in the Chicago area running his offense successfully.

It appears that Slot formation has allowed us to get by occasionally with smaller tight ends. On power plays, if the defense is lined up just right, you sometimes get what amounts to a triple-team at the corner. It is vicious. Another advantage is that it enables you to run more of the offense without motion, which means you can go on first sound - a real problem for defenses who think they can key on, and react to, your motion. Another advantage is that it is more difficult for defenses to hold up your ends on pass plays. It is quite possible, as I discuss in my newest video, "Dynamics IV," that the sprint sweep is especially effective from slot formation. Slot is a part of our future plans as we investigate "Bunch" pass pattern possibilities.

A significant disadvantage to Slot is that , although you can run the entire package from Slot formation, 6-g or 7-g is nowhere near as good. That's because in Slot formation, you're now asking your little wingback to block a defensive lineman all by himself. Another disadvantage is that your ends could wind up outside the free blocking zone (four yards wide of the point of the snap) which means they won't be able to shoe-shine (clip) on the backside of the power play.

Slot formation and the "nasty split" it creates does present real predicaments for a defense, but I haven't run it all that much lately. Maybe that's just because of my laziness, but there is also the time factor: it does increase the number of variables that you'll run into in blocking at the corner, and that means using practice time that's already been blocked out for other things.

These areas are still wide open to research and development by coaches who dare to experiment. The difficulty with that, of course, is that you have to be in a situation which allows you to experiment. I have been very fortunate in having been in a number of such situations.

30. I am thinking about opening up our splits to, say, a foot. What is your thinking? I think you would wind up running something more on the order of the Delaware Wing-T (nothing wrong with that), but there's got to be a point - somewhere - where your splits begin costing you the advantages of the tight double wing. We may occasionally vary our splits when we want to facilitate an inside release, or isolate a man we are going to be kicking out - or as a decoy, when it doesn't make any difference, but ordinarily, we average 6 inches per man or less. A foot, as you suggest, isn't that much more than what we are doing, but it is 12 inches more than Don Markham advocates.

Some ways I can see that increasing your splits to a "huge" one foot might adversely affect your tight double wing are (1) you will either have a less effective wedge, or you will have to tighten up - telegraphing your intentions - every time you run a wedge; (2) your inside gaps will be a little more vulnerable to penetration; (3) you will invite more blitzes, and when blitzes come, they may become more of a problem; (4) your backside tackles will have farther to go to get the job done on power plays; (5) your center and backside end will have to cover a couple more feet of territory between them - almost the width of another body - in trying to prevent backside run-through whenever the guard and tackle pull; (6) if you are running any kind of sprint sweep, it will take the back a little longer to get to the corner; (7) your pass protection will be more susceptible to twists and stunts; (8) you will find yourself back to policing splits again (my experience has been that high school linemen have a tendency to keep tightening down); and, (9) it is conceivable - admittedly unlikely - that wider splits across the line could push your tight ends outside the free blocking zone, taking away their ability to "shoe-shine" on the backside of power plays. Watch your opponents and referees get out their tape measures.

Since we are not hitting fast like a split-T or veer attack anyhow, I question what advantages there would be to us in opening the splits on a constant basis; but it pays to be open-minded because there is always somebody out there doing something that the rest of us said couldn't be done.

29. Dear coach, A coaching friend of mine said the most important thing to do in order to win Friday night is develop and know your game plan. As I reflect on my past season I'm not sure if I did that every week. Do you have any suggestions or step by step procedures you would recommend in order to prepare for an opponent. Also, I'm looking for a good football book to read. If you only had time to read one by next season what would it be? Thanks for your advice

We actually begin working on our game plan from the very first day of practice. By that I mean working to eliminate the ways that good teams beat themselves. I won't elaborate on how we do that, but I think that the Atlanta Falcons did an excellent job of demonstrating the results of that approach in their win over Minnesota: no offensive penalties, no offensive turnovers. To the need for eliminating turnovers and penalties, I would add refraining from making the stupid call - The Play That Has No Chance.

Strategically, we want to make sure that every one of our basic core of plays is ready to go, from multiple sets, against anything we might see. And, to the extent that we have passers and receivers (believe it or not, in America in the 1990's, we have trouble finding those kids), we want to have a couple of pass plays to go "over the top."

We won't put a "gadget" play (or any other play for that matter) in the game plan unless it has had numerous successful reps during the previous week - two weeks, preferably. Before attempting anything heroic, we first want to make sure we have maximized its chances for success, because "rolling the dice" on a play we're not confident in has just as much potential to put us in a hole as a careless turnover or a foolish penalty.

We start out thinking in terms of running the off-tackle (88 power or super power) play, and what opponents might do to try to stop that. Here is a really important point: we have to be able to trouble-shoot a play -to determine why it failed. Was it something the defense did do? Or was it something we didn't do? The better we get at trouble-shooting a play, the more likely we are to find that the fault lies with us and our failure to execute the play correctly. That being the case, we want to make the corrections, and not desert a play that is still "live" otherwise.

If that is not the case, then depending on what the defense is doing, we may block the play differently, or hit them with a trap, a counter, a "G" play, or a play-action pass. Or a wedge. Or another set.

If I could recommend only one book to another football coach, it would be an oldie-but-goodie: Football Principles and Play, by David M. Nelson - Ronald Press, NYC, 1962. Dave Nelson is considered the inventor of the wing-T (he coached at Delaware for years) but apart from that, Coach Nelson was a student of the game, a football historian and an NCAA rules guru . A keeper of the faith, you might say. The book is out of print and hard to find, but it is a jewel.

You will also find some great stuff in the Coach of the Year Clinic Football Manual put out every year, summarizing some of the many presentations made at various clinic sites.

Check the "Coaching Resources" page. There are numerous good books mentioned there. Unfortunately, they're mostly old and out of print. Nowadays, lots of coaches "write" memoirs "as told to" some sports writer, but you'll find very few scholarly books being written by the big guys anymore - which is unfortunate. But writing - actually writing - a technical book is time-consuming, especially in relation to its potential payoff, and those guys evidently have better uses for their time.

28. What is the single most important thing in coaching offense? I think it's being able to visualize how the finished product - the correctly-run play - should look. Not all coaches can do this. I don't know much about music, but I do know that good conductors can look at a sheet of music they've never heard before, and know how they want the piece to sound. I think that's a great advantage of having tapes to look at and show your players. Right behind that, running a close second, comes making certain that your players know that you know what the correctly-run play should look like; that you believe they're capable of running it that way; and that you're not going to accept less than that from them. I think the third most important thing is being able to diagnose, sometimes with only your intuition to go on - based on your knowledge of the play, the defense, and your personnel - why a particular play wasn't run correctly. And then I think the fourth most important thing is being willing and able to use your knowledge and teaching skills to correct the problem immediately, and not let it slide. And fifth- patience. Pray for it. RIGHT NOW!

27. What can I do during the off-season to keep my kids and their parents informed about what's going on, and keep them thinking about football? This can be a real problem if you teach at a big school and rarely see some of your kids, or if you coach at a school but don't teach there, or if you coach a youth team and just plain never see your kids between seasons. I know of at least two coaches who are doing things worth considering. Mike Glodowski, successful head coach at Richmond Heights, Ohio High School, teaches math, and so he doesn't have the sort of situation where he sees all his kids in weight training classes every day. So Mike publishes a monthly newsletter for his players and their parents - and the Richmond Heights faculty! - covering anything that might pertain to the football program. The faculty, Mike tells me, takes special interest in his reports of players' academic accomplishments. It takes a lot of effort, but from the feedback he gets, Mike is sure that it's worth it. Jack Reed, noted publisher of books on youth football - and also of a recent book called Football Clock Management - has found a great way to use the Web in maintaining communications. Jack is fortunate in having his own web site to begin with, and on it he has constructed a "blind" page, known only to his team and their parents, on which he posts all sorts of useful information throughout the year. Jack says that it has been a tremendous asset to him in dealing with parents. You might consider looking into a web site of your own, just for your team. Naturally, if you were to go as far as Jack does and actually include game - and player - evaluations, you would need to guard the confidentiality of your page. Jack let me peek at his, but only after swearing me to secrecy.

26. My Middle School Head Coach just turned in his resignation. His reason was that he could not coach in a system that he did not believe in. The real problem is that he was told that I was going to be fired this season and he was assured he was going to get the job. He even went to the point of trying to assemble a staff while I still had the job. He doesn't know that I know this, and I feel it is better that I keep it under my hat. At any rate there are more positives than negatives to come out of this. First, if he was being disruptive then it is for the better. Second, the Junior High staff was here before me and now, with them all gone, I get to assemble my whole staff, by my choosing, not by having to keep people that were already here. I didn't know that high school coaching jobs were that desirable, but they must be when you hear some of the stunts people will try in order to get one. You've just learned an important lesson about assistants - loyalty is to be prized above every other qualification. Staff disloyalty has got to rank right up near the top of reasons why good men get fired. An incompetent assistant might cost you your job, but a disloyal one almost certainly will. You can always work on making a coach more competent, but you will never make a disloyal coach loyal.

He's the one that the AD feels he can sidle over to, unbeknowst to you, and ask, "What do the kids think about Coach ________?" The one who tells the president of the Booster Club, "It's not my call, but - personally, I'd have kicked the extra point." The one who tells the quarterback's dad, "I'd like to see us open it up and throw the ball a little more." The one who stands in the background whispering to a couple of the other assistants while you're trying to coach. The one who can't wait to tell his buddies down at the local pub about the way you got on the kids today. Sometimes, even, the one who's out to get your job.

In view of what you've discovered, I would agree with you that the resignation of your junior high coach is a very positive thing for your program. If he is good enough to go after your job, why didn't he go after it two years ago, when you did? I know what he's done the past two years - if he wasn't qualified then, how can he be now?

You walked into a tough spot - one lone outsider going into a town with lots of local yokels already solidly entrenched in the program. And based on what you've heard, it would have been a lot tougher if you hadn't turned it around this year. One bit of advice a good coaching friend of mine once gave me was this: when you arrive in a new town, clean every single townie - every local, non-teaching coach, paid or volunteer - out of your program. Their first loyalty isn't to you - they figure they'll be there long after you're gone. So the whole time they're on your staff, they're just going to be a pipeline to the outside. Clean house, he told me. You'll catch some heat for doing it, but isn't it wiser to undergo a painful treatment than die of the disease? "Beware of the guy on your staff who has less to lose than you do if things go bad."

You're wise to keep this under your hat, but based on what you've told me in the past, it sure sounds as if your AD is involved in this treachery, and you might consider firing a warning shot across his bow. Let him find out indirectly - let the word get back to him - that you are wise to what has gone on, and you are not unarmed yourself. You might consider talking with your supporters on the school board and certain influential parents and community members - do you get along with the superintendent? - and "asking their advice" (that's the key phrase). Let them know what you heard, and ask what they suggest you do. They will be flattered that you asked their advice - everybody is - and, because they know better than you how things are done in their community, they will have a better idea of how to handle this situation. Maybe you'll be able to sit back and let the medicine do its job. "Don't make enemies; but if you do, don't treat them gently."

Then go out and hire some guys - loyal guys - who owe their jobs to you, and train them in the way you want things done!

25. HOW DO YOU GO UNBALANCED? Normally, you create an unbalanced line by moving a guard, tackle or end to somewhere on the other side of center, giving you four linemen on one side (the "strong side" or "long side"), and only two on the other side (the "shortside"). See the example below. Some people achieve the same effect by having a back step up onto the line. Once you begin to experiment with the different ways you can do this - the different people you can move, and the different places you can put them - you begin to see how many possibilities there are. One reason we like to go unbalanced is that without a whole lot of changes in assignments on our part, we can force defenses to take precious practice time learning to adjustment to us - if they recognize it. A word of warning: most people who go unbalanced are looking for a temporary advantage in taking a defense by surprise. Unless that is your purpose - if instead you plan to run a number of plays from an unbalanced set - you'd better be prepared for a few surprises yourself. You will see a lot of unpredictable defenses.

24. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN YOUR SPRINT SWEEP AND THE CLASSIC WING-T BUCK SWEEP? The major difference is that in our sprint series, the wingback goes first, followed by the fullback.The series depends on the speed of the wingback's motion, which will get him outside a defense that is preoccupied with pinching down; with the threat of the sprint sweep established, the companion trap (shown here) becomes a good call.

23. CAN YOU RUN A "SPEED SWEEP" SIMILAR TO WHAT THEY RUN OUT OF THE FLY OFFENSE? We can and we do. It is our "Sprint Sweep." Originally called SPRINT 38 REACH or SPRINT 38 SWEEP, it is shown in my first video, DYNAMICS OF THE DOUBLE WING, along with the trap that complements it. Both are shown out of our "spread" formation, but over the past three seasons we have developed it into a pretty decent play from various other sets, including "tight", "slot" "over" and "uptight." At the request of our kids, we changed the name of the motion to "Rocket" (Right) and "Lazer" (left). In its simplest form, "TIGHT ROCKET 38 REACH" looks like this:

(Incidentally, my next tape, DYNAMICS IV, will deal with the sprint sweep, among other topics, and will be ready to ship by early February.)

22. WITH AN EMPHASIS ON BALL-CONTROL AND A RELATIVELY SMALL NUMBER OF PLAYS, THE DOUBLE-WING PLACES LESS EMPHASIS ON PLAY-CALLING, RIGHT? Wrong. On the contrary, unlike passing attacks, which might sputter for ten plays in a row and then get it all back on one play, intelligent, consistent, patient play-calling is especially important when you are running the double-wing, which even its most ardent boosters would not call a "come-from-behind" offense. You don't want to put yourself in the hole, and the stupid call is just as much to be avoided as the stupid penalty. The double-wing is a keep-the-ball-rolling kind of attack, and often your biggest job as a play-caller is to forget about the heroics and just stay out of the way. Here are three examples, from recent games I've seen, of the dangers of the heroic call. (These were not, incidentally, double-wing teams.)

Example #1: with first-and-goal on the one, team #1 runs an option. The QB is forced to pitch, the pitch man is tackled in the backfield, and they wind up with second-and-goal on the seven - same result as a five-yards-and-loss-of-down penalty. (The great Paul Brown once said that the best play in football is the one that goes straight ahead...and the second-best play is the one that goes - almost straight ahead.)

Example #2: backed up on their own one, team #2 calls an option. The QB is forced to pitch, and does so - back into his own end zone. The pitch man barely makes it out, narrowly escaping a safety - or worse.

Example #3: in the process of upsetting a superior opponent, team #3 opens the fourth quarter with a second-and-two on the opponents' 20. But rather than getting the first down and inching forward, working the clock, they instead throw a dump pass over the middle; it's intercepted and returned 85 yards for a TD. This seems to jolt the opponents awake: they go on to win.

When I see some of the situations we coaches get ourselves into as a result of ill-considered play-calling, I'm reminded of the admonition given to all new physicians: "First, do no harm."

21. OUR EIGHTH GRADE YOUTH TEAM HAS MADE THE STATE PLAYOFFS. PRIOR TO THIS SEASON, THIS GROUP OF KIDS NEVER WON MORE THAN ONE OR TWO GAMES A YEAR. THE POWER GAME HAS REALLY STARTED TO CLICK, AVERAGING 10.2 YARDS A SNAP OVER THE LAST MONTH. NOW WE'RE IN THE STATE SEMI-FINALS AGAINST A TEAM THAT AS A GROUP HAS NOT LOST A GAME IN FIVE YEARS. THIS YEAR THEY HAVE AVERAGED 46 POINTS A GAME, HAVE LET UP NONE, AND ALLOWED ONLY 9 FIRST DOWNS. THEY ARE THE ONLY TEAM TO DESTROY OUR RUNNING GAME THIS YEAR. WHEN YOU ARE TOTALLY OUTMANNED, DO YOU GO TO THE SPREAD AND THROW 25 TIMES A GAME OR DO YOU STAY THE COURSE AND GO WITH WHAT GOT YOU THERE? Been there. Painful experience over the years has taught me the importance of changing as little as possible going into a big game. I know the feeling of looking at what you've got, and looking at what they have, and thinking, "we can't beat them straight-up." And I've gone to something else. And laid an egg.

There is always the danger that the new and different approach will fail - which is likely, if those guys are as good as you say they are - and then what are you left with? You've not only lost the game, but you've trashed your basic offense, because the kids now know you didn't have confidence in it, or you'd have gone into the game prepared to run it. And now you're stuck with the remnants of an offense that you tried to slap together in three or four days - not even the Green Bay Packers can do that.

Another downside to spreading it out and throwing against a really good team is the greater possibility of a real butt-kicking, since every incompletion you throw stops the clock, allowing them more time to run their offense. Not to mention what interceptions and sacks might do to you.

You can still install a wrinkle or two in your basic offense without giving your kids the idea that you're deserting what got you there. It might be something as simple as running some plays from unbalanced. If your opponents haven't seen this, it could cause them some problems.

Now, more than ever, is the time to stick with the basics: work hard on your double-teams, on protecting your gaps, on pulling correctly, on making sure the kick-out blocker's head is "in the hole," on sustaining your blocks, on hanging onto the ball, on avoiding stupid penalties.

Don't forget, there's always the chance that your kids may have improved enough since your last meeting to play them closer this time. And the longer you can play them close, the better your chances of finding a way to win.

I guess the question you need to ask is, "what approach gives us the best chance of playing them close the longest - and coming out of it with our system intact?"

20. 3 MINUTES TO PLAY, AND YOU'RE AHEAD BY LESS THAN A TOUCHDOWN. IT'S 4TH AND ONE - ON YOUR OWN 25-YARD LINE. DO YOU GO FOR IT? I think it depends to some degree on whether a field goal can beat you or tie you - and whether they have the kicker to do it - but mainly, I think, it depends on how your defense has been playing. Faced with this exact situation in a recent playoff game, Coach Paul Herzog of North St. Paul, Minnesota, chose to punt. A few fans called his decision "gutless," but his defense held, and his Polars won, 14-12. In a somewhat similar situation last Friday, we found ourselves facing a fourth and three on our own 42, winning 24-19 with under two minutes to play. We were playing a passing team which just the week before had upset a highly-ranked opponent with a 3-play drive in the last 38 seconds - after the opponent had just scored and seemingly pulled out a last-minute win. We knew that they had the ability to strike quickly, and we had just dodged a bullet ourselves, having only a minute earlier choked off a drive with an interception at our own 35. So our decision was to ask our offense to "strap it on" and win it for us. We got the first down and ran out the clock. Fans may have called what we did "gutsy," but guts had nothing to do with it. The great Joe Paterno, incidentally, knows a little something about these calls. Few people now remember the Gator Bowl game following the '67 season, in which, with Penn State leading Florida State 17-0, Coach Paterno went for it on fourth-and-short deep in his own territory. But the Seminoles held. And scored. And rallied to play the Lions to a 17-17 tie. (That tie, incidentally, interrupted a seven-game State win streak, and turned out to be the last time that fabulous group of Penn State athletes would fail to win until 1970 - 23 games later.)

19. HOW CAN I BLOCK A "REACH" PLAY AGAINST A DEFENSE WHOSE ENDS BOX? If the defensive ends are boxing, you ought to be kicking them out and running inside them, not trying to reach them. They are boxing specifically to prevent you from running outside them. When you need to reach them is when they are playing tight and pinching down to the inside to stuff your power plays. A reach - a sweep - is like the traps or the counters or play action passes: it's either there or it's not. You can't force it. Now, the power plays are something else - you have to be able to run them against anything. Think of the other plays - traps, counters, sweeps and play action passes - as responses to things that defenses do to try to stop your power plays.

18. WHAT ELSE CAN BE DONE WITH "SPRINT" MOTION? For those of you who use "Sprint" Motion - which, by the way, at the request of our kids, we now call "ROCKET" (to the right), "LAZER" (to the left ) - and run the "Reach" play, you may also have run the companion trap play, the "G" play, and the counter. Now comes this idea, passed along to me by Coach Ron Hennig, at Holy Cross H.S. in Louisville, Ky: Give it to the motion man just as if you're running "Reach", but instead - have him run 6 (or 7) G! Coach Hennig has a kid who can fly, and he has run the play. He does advise this one change in assignments from conventional "G" blocking: since the running back's path will naturally make him take a sharper angle to the outside than the B-Back's course normally does, you need to have your playside wingback block the outside LBer, instead of his customary wall-off of the inside LBer. Otherwise, there is no need to teach anything new - all blocking rules remain the same. The B-Back hits inside, setting up the trap, same as he does on the Reach play. I'm certainly going to take a look at it.

17. DO YOU EVER DEPART FROM YOUR TIGHT SPLITS? Although our base spllits are six inches or less, we will occasionally adjust our splits. This is kind of an advanced technique, once you're sure that you can protect your inside gaps. It is useful, for instance, when a man needs to release inside a down lineman (for some reason, until you show them otherwise, your kids actually seem to think that they improve their chances of releasing inside a man by lining up more to the inside - which actually tightens their split and pens them in!) We are not talking about anything excessive, by the way - for us, a foot would be a large split. NOTE WELL: If you do start messing with your splits, it is very important that your linemen also adjust their splits when it doesn't mean anything.

RULES TIP: Mr. Einstein, the referee at our game Friday night, flagged us for illegal motion. We couldn't see anything wrong - we were set for a full second, after which our C-Back, and only our C-Back, had gone in motion, just as we intended - so we asked him what was wrong. He replied, "Your man has to be clearly in motion." When I asked him to define "clearly" for me, he said, "he has to be in motion for one full second before the ball is snapped." Now he had me! I called a time out, during which I asked him, among other things, if he remembered the hey day of the veer, with its "jump" motion. He didn't, of course - he was too young. Having once been young myself, I find a lot to be said for it, but I told him that we had been running motion for more years than he had been officiating, and asked him if by chance he could show me the rule he was citing. He said he could, but as usual, he was off the field immediately following the game, headed no doubt for the local referees' rendezvous. Just for your info: RULE 7, section 2, article 7: "Only one Team A player may be in motion at the snap and then only if such motion is not toward his opponent's goal line." PERIOD. The rule goes on to specify what has to be done if you want to send a lineman in motion, but otherwise, that's it. PERIOD. Why do these geniuses feel they have to complicate one of the game's simpler rules? Why, especially, do some of them they feel they have to enforce a rule they haven't bothered to learn? The Head Linesman, on our sideline, helpfully suggested, "you're just going to have to adjust."

16. WHAT ABOUT A QUICK PASSING GAME? Here's the 3-step "RED READ" or "BLUE READ" package used by Coach Walter Fortune, in Cleveland, Texas. For those of you who already know our system or have the playbook handy, Coach Fortune does this from Spread, Roy, Lee, East or West, using Red or Blue protection. The QB and the outside receiver both read the coverage on the outside receiver: if the corner is playing him tight, he runs a fade, and if the corner is backed off, he runs a 6-yard hitch. The inside receiver (wingback or TE, depending on the set) runs a seam to freeze the safety. The QB takes a 3-step drop and throws quick. This also would make a nice addition for those of you running an "OVER" or "UNDER" package, too. Thanks to Coach Fortune for showing us one of the ways in which he has taken advantage of the versatility of our system.

15. WHAT ABOUT THOSE TIMES WHEN YOU HAVE TO HAVE A GADGET PLAY? Even Nebraska and Florida State, who can beat anybody straight-up, still have a few of these up their sleeve. This was submitted by Coach Todd Solberg, of Birchwood-Weyerhaeuser HS, in Wisconsin. He swears he's run it! (1) QB makes a quick fake to B Back at 2, hits the LE who has hooked at 7-8; (2) LE laterals to the C Back, who has slipped underneath; C back has the option of (3) lateralling to the A Back. (The line must fire low and hard to keep defensive hands down.)

14. WE FACE A 4-4 DEFENSE WHICH CAUSES OUR POWER PLAY SOME PROBLEMS BY PLAYING THEIR ENDS ON OUR TIGHT ENDS' OUTSIDE SHOULDERS. OUR WINGBACKS ARE NOT STRONG ENOUGH TO BLOCK THOSE DEFENSIVE ENDS BY THEMSELVES. The "9" technique defensive end creates a number of opportunities for our Double Wing. (1) Wall down with your TE and Wingback and let your fullback kick out on the "9" technique; (2) Turn your TE out on the DE and lead your Wingback through on first Lber to his inside (what we call "4 Base Lead" or "5 Base Lead"); (3) Run 6-G and 7-G till the cows come home - or until your opponents get out of this basically unsound (don't tell them, though) alignment.

13. WE HAVE JUST INSTALLED THE DOUBLE WING, AND WE HAVE A SCRIMMAGE COMING UP THIS WEEKEND. I'D JUST AS SOON OUR FIRST OPPONENT DOESN'T KNOW WE'RE RUNNING THE DOUBLE WING, AND I WANT TO KEEP IT UNDER WRAPS, SO I'M PLANNING ON RUNNING SOMETHING ELSE IN THE SCRIMMAGE. WHAT'S YOUR THINKING ON THAT? Why did you schedule a scrimmage, if not to find out where you need work, where you may have to look at another player, and where you're right on schedule? I coach at a small school, where our best never get to go against our best (they're the same kids) , so we have to make use of the only chance we get to scrimmage outside teams - in Washington, it's called a "Jamboree", and compared to a scrimmage, it's lame, but we always find areas that need patching up, and that's far more valuable to us than trying to keep a secret that may be out anyhow. Respect this offense - it takes a lot of reps and technique work for you to run it well, and you can't afford to waste time practicing "something else" just so you can get through a waste-of-time scrimmage. Besides, no opponent is going to be able to slap together a decent scout team on such short notice, and run it anywhere close to as well as you run it, anyhow. (And by the end of your first game, everybody else on your schedule will be well aware of what you're doing.)

12. I AM GOING TO BE PLAYING A DOUBLE-WING TEAM SOON - WHAT'S THE BEST WAY TO STOP IT? Are you serious? First of all, unless you've got the people to overwhelm them, I don't know. I coach our defense, too, and once a year, we play a Double-Wing team, a school where I originally installed it. They've been running it for eight years now, and they're good at it. I think I know the offense pretty well, but our two meetings have resulted in 28-14 and 40-22 losses for us, so I'm not a good one to ask about stopping the Double-Wing. One of the reasons why there is so much interest in the Double-Wing is that no one has yet developed a universal defensive scheme that you can teach - outside your basic defensive philosophy - then line up in and handle everything this offense can throw at you. Everywhere in the country, though, there are defensive coordinators who think they have the answer. Anyhow, what are you asking me for? My job is to advance and promote the Double-Wing, not stop it. That's your job.

11. WE HAVE A BIG KID WHO IS QUICK AND A PRETTY GOOD ATHLETE - ONE OF US WANTS TO USE HIM AT OFFENSIVE TACKLE BUT WE STILL NEED A "B" BACK (FULLBACK) AND HE CAN PLAY THERE - In our scheme of things, that's a no-brainer. We all want big, strong, quick tackles, but we can't make the offense work without that great kick-out block by our fullback. Remember Woody Hayes' advice on the subject - if you've got a big, strong kid who can run, put him right in the middle of your offense - not somewhere on the periphery.

10. HOW OFTEN DO YOU SCRIMMAGE DURING OFFENSIVE PRACTICE? Once we can legally put on pads (after three days) we scrimmage nearly every day - full speed. Blocking a dummy or a shield is not the same as blocking a real person. However: there is one very important condition: we never permit contact below the waist, and we never permit anyone being taken to the ground. One bonus to this approach: your scout team defense will become better football players than they would if they stood around holding bags or shields.

9. HOW CAN I TEACH MY QB TO MAKE A SOFT TOSS? We tell our QB's to "toss a baby." But since it's highly unadvisable to practice doing so with a real baby, you might want to do what the Home Ec teacher does to teach parenting, and use an egg. A raw egg. In fact, better buy a dozen while you're at it, because they'll break a few. But your QB's will learn to toss the egg softly, and the runners to employ soft hands, if you accompany the drill with some sort of "incentive" (heh, heh) not to break the egg.

8. DO I HAVE TO MAKE MY LINEMEN PUT THEIR INSIDE HANDS DOWN? No, just like you don't "have to" insist that your runners cover the point of the football, or that your tacklers "lock up," either. But once you begin to compromise on the little things - once you fail to insist that your players respect the fine points - where do you stop? For those who weren't at one of my Spring Clinics, there are are least four compelling reasons why we insist that our players put their inside hands down - and their inside feet back - with their inside hands directly in front of their inside feet. While still keeping our shoulders parallel to the line, it enables us to "pre-turn" the hips to the inside, facilitating:

(1) Gap protection;

(2) Pulling opposite;

(3) Releasing inside a defensive lineman;

(4) Forming the wedge without allowing penetration

7. CAN'T I HAVE MY FULLBACK IN A 2-POINT STANCE? Sure, but part of what makes this attack unique is the defense's inability to find the fullback. To understand this better, stand over on defense behind your inside linebacker(s) while your offense is running its plays. Try to crouch down in a good hit position and find the fullback. If you can't find him without standing up to look over the linemen, you will begin to understand the major benefit of playing your fullback down - in a 3-point (or 4-point) stance.

6. CAN I JUST RUN THE POWER AND NOT THE SUPER-POWER? Yes, a lot of people who run the offense prefer to hand the ball off (POWER) instead of the QB tossing and leading through (SUPER POWER), and they are happy with it. I should point out, though, that the QB toss-and-lead-through aspect of Don Markham's play was what originally convinced me to adapt my Delaware Wing-T system to accomodate it. Consider, also, what it does for your quarterback as a leader when he shows the rest of the team that he'll stick his nose in there! I haven't had many quarterbacks who weren't tough kids - kids who wanted to prove they were just as tough as everybody else. I think that when you go overboard to protect your quarterback, you are eroding his ability to lead.

5. WITH MY LINEMEN AS DEEP AS THEY ARE, MY PULLING GUARDS ARE KNOCKING THE BALL OUT OF THE QB'S HANDS AND CAUSING FUMBLES. This is a common problem when you first start out. Do NOT attempt to solve it by slowing down your linemen. (1) Move your QB back from the center - have him operate with extended arms; (2) Make sure your QB pulls the ball to his groin - right away. QB's used to another system - I formation, for example, will have a little adjusting to do. This is important because it's also part of our program of concealing the ball; (3) Make sure that the QB is not standing stationary at the snap. (Most will wait until they actually have the ball before they step out of there.) Although he must keep his hands under center until he receives the ball, your QB should be starting his first step on the snap count, not when the ball is in his hands.

4. CAN WE RUN OPTION IN THIS SYSTEM? YES! I have seen tape of a team successfully running the triple, just as they had in 1996 - when they ran wishbone - and I have seen tape of another team which has successfully adapted Army's mid-line option to the Double-Wing. I recently received a play from a coach in the South who runs a lead option with his "B" Back as the Pitch Man - he takes a "bucket step" and gets depth initially in order to get into pitch relationship.

3. WE ARE GETTING "LEAKAGE" (PENETRATION) ON THE PLAYSIDE OF POWERS AND COUNTERS- Check your uncovered playside linemen. If an uncovered playside linemen fires out too soon - usually going after a linebacker - he opens a gap in the playside front big enough for a defensive lineman to slant through or a backside linebacker to scrape through. Make sure if he is uncovered that he first checks his area. (Actually, if that lineman never leaves his post, he'll do you less harm than if he fires right out, either going after a linebacker or doubling down unnecessarily.)

2. WHAT IF THE DEFENSIVE LINEMEN ARE DIVING AT MY PULLING LINEMEN'S FEET AND GRABBING THEM? First of all, it's illegal. (See the bottom of my NEWS page.) But this shouldn't be a problem anyhow, so long as your linemen are as far off the ball as the rules allow. Basically, the rules say that the tops of your linemen's heads must be even with the center's waistline. You can accomplish this by having your guards put their inside hands next to the center's heels; next, the tackles align on the guards' depth, and finally, the tight ends align on the tackles' depth. With the guards already as deep as legal, you must make sure that your tight ends do not bow back, or you won't have seven men on the LOS.

1. WHAT IS A GOOD WAY FOR MY PLAYSIDE GUARD TO TAKE THE PROPER INSIDE-OUT ANGLE ON 6-G AND 7-G? Have him reach out with his outside (playside) arm and pull the tackle down to the inside - - similar to the fold-block technique. This will keep your guard from turning his shoulders too much and pulling too flat, and will enable him to get up into the hole and root 'em out.

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Defensive is matched up numerically	Defense is a half-man short to trips side (Slanting the line toward trips would even up the numbers)