Earlier this year, I began to compile & organize these notes & axioms into a single document. Ideally I would like to eventually have a notebook that I could add to each offseason and look at again each pre-season as I reevaluate my program. I thought that as part of this blog and my compilation efforts, I would share some of the things that I've found.
These are quotes about coaches, quotes from coaches about their influences, and outside observations on coaches and their programs. Some of these are Hall of Fame coaches, some have losing records, and some are career assistants; all have good things to offer.
Unless you have been living under a rock for the past several years, then you should be familiar with Coach Urban Meyer of Utah, Florida, and now Ohio State. These notes come from the book Urban's Way ,written during his Florida days.
URBAN
MEYER
·
He has a conviction that he owes every
player a chance to play, to graduate, and to achieve a normal, happy life by
sorting out whatever demons haunt him.
·
He talked about total commitment for the
107 days leading up to the SEC Championship Game. I try to break everything
into segments. On our bowl preparation, I don’t go beyond 4 or 5 day segments
because you lose the players.
·
Tucked inside Meyer’s 129 page document is
the Plan To Win. It’s only one page.
·
It drives every player personnel issue,
every game plan, and every decision he makes in football.
·
PLAN TO WIN:
-Play Great Defense
-Turnovers
-Score in the Red Zone
-Win the Kicking Game
·
CORE VALUES For Players:
Honesty
Respect
Women
No
Drugs
No
Stealing
No
Weapons
·
DO YOUR JOB for coaches
-
Take care of your family and your health
-
Take care of your players (academic,
social, spiritual, family)
-
Be an expert at your position and excel as
a teacher
-
Recruit every day
-
Be passionate about coaching &
football
·
I never got a book like that from a coach.
I just kind of put it together myself. I wanted to have a resource when the
situation called for it – I didn’t want to have to grab from air.
·
Four to six seconds of relentless effort.
·
If you are a teacher, you teach, and if
you don’t teach your players properly, then it’s on you.
·
The Champions Club – It is a circle of
trust based on adherence to team rules and putting forth a higher degree of
effort in the classroom and on the field.
·
Players have responsibilities /
obligations, not entitlements.
·
Selfish people fail
·
We know we cannot save them all, but that
is what we must try to do. In the end, that is a coach’s responsibility, and
not what people think.
·
Some of you woke up on third base and
don’t even realize how you got here because you didn’t hit the triple.
·
Just to watch Coach Lubick operate, the
way he treated everybody – secretaries, everybody!
·
Are you changing people’s lives? Are you
really involved?
·
Relationships with players became
everything.
·
My job is to get that kid the ball.
·
It’s not a very good job. Of course it’s
not. If it was, why would they call you?
·
The fruits of all his note taking over the
years was his manual.
·
Just as he had reinvented himself as an
athlete, he would do so as a head coach, jettisoning bad habits as he moved
from job to job.
·
We’re going to figure out whether we’re
going to be coming together or we’re going to be going apart. If at any point
and time you want to leave, you’re more than welcome to quit. But I’m not going
to quit on you.
·
If you screw up, you run.
·
So disgusted with losing were the players
that they welcomed coaches who offered a personal touch, who invited them over
to their houses and encouraged them to stay committed to their education.
·
Every player just wants to be helped.
·
Because Meyer paid tribute to his seniors
and said he wanted to send them off on a good note, they felt a sense of
purpose and responded positively.
·
It was really just going to be a
personnel-driven option out of a spread formation designed to get the ball
thrown, pitched, or snapped to speedy athletes in space.
·
The first day I thought I was going to
die. The second day I was sure I was going to die. And by the end of the week,
I was hard as a rock.
·
If done correctly, the player-coach
relationship is the most meaningful relationship, second only to the
parent-child relationship.
·
At the insistence of their coach, Utah players began to
find out the family backgrounds of their teammates, their hometowns, their high
schools, their likes and dislikes. If they didn’t have the correct answer, they
had to run.
·
Everyone is so tight because you’ve been
thru so much together. Those mental barriers are broken down. You found
yourself really engaging that stuff and really wanting it, knowing it was going
to make you better and pay off.
·
Try to be the most invested team in the
country.
·
At the retreat, they openly challenged
each other’s theories & philosophies – they would be encouraged to give
their opinions & challenge fellow staffers, even when their opinions were
different from the boss.
·
The “Do your Job” mantra goes for
assistant coaches as well as players.
·
He not only recruits the player, but also
the 13 or 14 people around him.
·
How important that relationship is with
the kids, how to get involved in their lives and how to develop their trust.
·
Discipline is 90% anticipation, not
reaction. Discipline is making sure you talk to them before that party &
then have someone there if it happens.
·
The idea behind the offense is to have one
more blocker than they have defenders – or “plus ones”
·
Spread Offense
-
One High = equal numbers, you can run the
ball & be OK
-
Two High = You’re Plus One. Run the ball,
because they can outnumber you in the passing game.
-
No Deep = You cannot run the ball. You are
Minus One. There are two answers: Run the option or Throw the ball
·
He let you know that if you didn’t want a
part of this, now was the time to leave. “If you want to get off, get off now.
But when it’s all said & done, we’re going to get the train back on the
track with you or without you.”
·
Mental toughness would be a requirement
for all.
·
Even in our off-season workouts a lot more
of the stuff was team-oriented instead of individual stuff. If a teammate fell
down, you had to have his back. You don’t want to be that weak link.
·
Something was going to happen, somebody
was going to make a play but we weren’t going to lose those games.
·
If you love football and you’ve got
somebody coming in to help you, then why not accept them?
With all that said, what about the comments he made to Muschamp? "This program is broken". WTH does that mean? What it means is, he didn't follow what he has written here. 32 arrests in his time at UF?! I may be a bitter Gator fan, but there is no greater hypocrosy than what you have written here (not attacking you, I'm talking about Meyer, this is a GOOD blog post). Look at his player goals, and tell me if they acheived that with 32 arrests during his tenure. The program was broken b/c Meyer broke it...just keep that in mind to all that read this...
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