Coaching Knowledge Project #7 Don Shula

            Over the last few summers, I have started taking notes on some of the coaching biographies and books that I have read. One problem that I have had over the years is that I read so much and look at so much different info that I don't ever retain the knowledge for future use. I will read about a drill or a philosophy and I will think "Hey, that fits pretty good with my guys. I wanna use that this year." Then I will lay the book or the info to the side and forget all about it.
                 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.
                With the Miami Dolphins in the news as a possible landing spot for Peyton Manning, I figured let's go with a classic and pull out some Don Shula notes.

DON SHULA

·         I try to get the edge with mental preparation, and physical preparation, and in general, with overall preparation to accomplish the ultimate.

·         Don always wanted to know why we did what we did.

·         He always gives the “why” to everything that is put into his playbook.

·         He studied the opposition and always wanted to know “why” if something wasn’t working. When he dealt with a player, he’d always ask, “Are we asking too much of this guy?”

·         That is what coaching is….the ability to transmit information.

·         Everything is laid out to the minute. There are four and a half minutes here, eighteen minutes there. He has taken the coaches out on the field and put us through warm-up exercises just the way he wanted players to do them.

·         The team sees him working so hard and that feeling rubs off.

·         In the end, winning & losing doesn’t depend on trick plays or using new systems each week. It comes down to a matter of motivating people to work hard and prepare as a team. That’s what really counts. In a word, it’s called coaching.

·         The relationship I want to establish with my football team is one of mutual respect. I want my players to respect me for giving them everything that I have to prepare them to play their best. My respect for them has to come from knowing they are willing to give me all that they have to prepare themselves to be ready to play.

·         Determine your players’ talents and give them every weapon to get the most out of those talents.

·         Preparation means everything to me. I’m passionate about my players being ready for anything. If our players are worrying about their assignments, they have a tendency to hold back. They should be so familiar with their assignments that when the game starts they’re operating on auto pilot – not thinking, just doing.

·         He gives not only the Xs and Os, but the theory of why the play has been designed, why it is run and what it was designed to do with other plays to be used in a game.

·         Winning early helped because I was asking them to do so much. It made them think the work was worthwhile. They saw it pay off.

·         Each player, regardless of his position, must be taught to innovate & deal with situations he hasn’t practiced against.

·         One of the big things I’ve learned is to become more understanding of others in this regard. There might be a better way to teach a guy than to blow your stack on the sidelines, depending on the player’s personality.

·         On appearance: The key word is moderation. But I’ll draw the line the minute a player begins to think more about the way he looks that the way he plays.

·         When we win we know it’s not final. We know we’ve got to line up next week and prove ourselves all over again. If we lose, we also know we’re not dead and we must get off the floor and have a chance to change the score the next time we play.

·         The fact that you, as a coach, are asking performers to go beyond themselves, to push their limits, will automatically mean that you’ll be doing unpopular things. If what you’re after is being liked, that is going to dictate how hard you push; you won’t want to offend anybody or get them mad at you. As soon as that happens, there goes your effectiveness – and respect as well.

·         He rationalizes that if you come up short in your attempt for perfection, you’ll still be a formidable team. But if you strive to be just good and come up short, you’ll likely wind up an average club.

What Can We Learn From "Big-Time" Coaches?

         I wanted to post some food for thought and also get some other points of view. If you have read this blog, you have seen the Coaching Knowledge Project that I have put together, consisting of my notes from reading about various high profile football coaches. After my recent Urban Meyer post, I received a comment which I actually very much agree with....
          This is the comment: 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...
      I believe this comment has several very good points. There are some strong accountability questions with Urban Meyer and the current state of the Florida Gators Football Program. But the sad thing is, I don't think that Meyer is neccessarily unique among the profession. I have been lucky enough to coach young men that were highly-recruited, allowing me some limited access to meeting some of the greats of college coaching, as well as some up and comers. When you spend time around coaches or you hear some of the inside stories or even read some of the books about these men, you realize that, almost to a man, they are very flawed individuals.
       For one, the top coaches are almost always borderline (or sometimes not so borderline) egomaniacs. Sometimes these anecdotes have a "cute" feel to them, like Holtz insisting on his soft drinks in the cart at practice or Sean Payton and his chewing gum. You laugh, but do you really stop to think about this? What other profession would this fly in? But I also have knowledge of a DI Head Coach (not anymore) who stopped practice and ordered his assistant coaches to sprint across two practice fields, touch a fence, and come back, all while the players sat and watched, simply because the team was practicing badly. Are you kidding me? The most disturbing point of this is that all of the assistants complied. What that tells me is that many of the assistants in DI jobs are willing to do almost anything to keep their job.
          And I don't think this is anything new. The point that I am getting to is that, on the way up the ladder, I think that many of these high-profile coaches have had to make compromises that have damaged their integrity, their character, and their self-awareness. For instance, how could Todd Graham not realize that texting his resignation was absolutely the wrong way to do things. And yet, he appears oblivious. And I have heard good things about Graham before.
       Unfortunately, the men who have had the greatest success in our profession are not balanced men. They have had to sacrifice some of who they are off the field and at home in order to reach their ambitions. The worst thing seems to be that when they reach the pinnacle, they appear to have some disconnect from the rest of the world. I'm not just talking about the "outlaw" coaches; I'm talking about Bowden and Walsh and even Paterno (for years the bastion of integrity in the coaching profession).
        Are these coaches bad people? No. Should they be drawn & quartered and thrown away? No. Do they have knowledge to offer that is of value to those of us trying to become better coaches? Yes, of course. These men have been outstanding or else we would not be discussing them. I will use Urban Meyer as my example. When I look at some of his thoughts and ideas and philosophies, I am studying someone who took three programs (Bowling Green, Utah, and Florida) from downturns to extreme heights in a very brief amount of time. I am also studying a coach who has helped many of the young men who played for him attain outstanding athletic and personal growth. I believe that he cares about his players deeply. But I also believe that he let the program at Florida get away from him and, instead of determining to right the ship, he took a sabbatical.
      I don't know these men personally. We all have flaws and issues, with our ego and other things. And we have the luxury of living outside the spotlight, so our flaws are not necessarily on display. What I am asking is, "Can we gain any knowledge of value from thse men, even though we may question their integrity or values?
       As a young coach, I worked as a GA for an underfunded I-AA program that at times was run like a club team. I also worked for a high school state championship program that is still the most professional organization that I ever spent time with. The funny thing is, I learned a huge amount from both situations. You learn how things should be done and you learn what not to do. I believe that this is how we should study the "Big Time" football coaches, looking at the good and the bad.

Coaching Knowledge Project #6 Urban Meyer

      Over the last few summers, I have started taking notes on some of the coaching biographies and books that I have read. One problem that I have had over the years is that I read so much and look at so much different info that I don't ever retain the knowledge for future use. I will read about a drill or a philosophy and I will think "Hey, that fits pretty good with my guys. I wanna use that this year." Then I will lay the book or the info to the side and forget all about it.
       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?

Coaching Knowledge Project #5 Barry Alvarez

Over the last few summers, I have started taking notes on some of the coaching biographies and books that I have read. One problem that I have had over the years is that I read so much and look at so much different info that I don't ever retain the knowledge for future use. I will read about a drill or a philosophy and I will think "Hey, that fits pretty good with my guys. I wanna use that this year." Then I will lay the book or the info to the side and forget all about it.
             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.
             Being from the South, I was that familiar with Barry Alvarez. A friend recommended his book and I found it to be one of my top five coaching books of all time.Alvarez served as the head football coach at Wisconsin for 16 seasons from 1990 to 2005, compiling a career college football record of 118–73–4. He has the longest head coaching tenure and the most wins in Wisconsin Badgers football history. He also played for Bob Devaney at Nebraska and coached the defense on Lou Holtz's Notre Dame National Championship team. Alvarez stepped down as head coach after the 2005 season, remaining as athletic director. Alvarez was inducted to the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 2010.

BARRY ALVAREZ

·         He made us feel like we had an edge on every opponent.

·         His personal motivation each day in practice was an inspiration to every player.

·         He instilled confidence in the team.

·         I’ve established a philosophy that fits my personality and developed my plan to win.

·         I wanted them to dress nicer than the other team’s players. I don’t care what the competition is. We’re sending a message – we came here to win everything we do.

·         We know the game plan and there’s no reason to be hesitant. If you make a mistake, you make a mistake. But play fast. Let’s go turn it loose, men.

·         As a more mature player, you have to lead by example – making sure things are done the right way.

·         I tried to get everyone involved at every level because I needed to sell myself and my program.

·         7 areas of a football game

-Turnovers

- Kicking Game

- Big Plays

- Goal Line Fundamentals

- Mental Errors

- Minus Yardage Plays

- Foolish Penalties

·         When you get in big games, you have to realize that you can drain your kids by getting them too cranked up, too emotional. Just concentrate on the game and don’t try to be superhuman. There is nothing magical about the formula. Your great players have to play great.

·         I was confident, and I wanted to send him one message – loud & clear – that I was ready to be a head coach.

·         A rebuilding project is about creating an attitude and an image, and it’s about making a statement “This is how we are going to run our program.”

·         I wanted to learn the history behind everything. I wanted to identify certain hurdles.

·         In the after practice meeting on Thursday, sometimes I might hand out pens & postcards and tell them to write a note to their mother or someone special in their life, someone they really care about. Take the time to tell them you love them.

·         The best teams take tremendous pride in their chemistry.

·         Leaders: Don’t change, just try to set an example for everybody else.

·         If you have 5 great players – and you surround them with players who wouldn’t hurt you – you had the makings of a championship contender.

·         These are the principles I want coached. Take care of these and you’re not going to have any problems with me.

·         He was nurturing me. That’s the greatest sign of a leader – if he can get you to do things without you knowing it.

Coaching Knowledge Project #4 Bill Snyder

Over the last few summers, I have started taking notes on some of the coaching biographies and books that I have read. One problem that I have had over the years is that I read so much and look at so much different info that I don't ever retain the knowledge for future use. I will read about a drill or a philosophy and I will think "Hey, that fits pretty good with my guys. I wanna use that this year." Then I will lay the book or the info to the side and forget all about it.
             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.

In the 1990s, Bill Snyder left the offensive coordinator position at Iowa under Hayden Fry to become the Head Football Coach at Kansas State University. He is widely regarded as steering the biggest turnaround of any college football program in history. This is good stuff by and about Bill Snyder:

BILL SNYDER

·         He was clearly organized, had a vision and an expectation. Visible toughness was demanded.

·         The idea was that if each one of us found a way to make that daily improvement, then individually we would grow, which means collectively we would be growing.

·         Some guys didn’t stick. Snyder didn’t view those guys as bad guys or guys with poor character. To them, it just wasn’t worth the price, which was ok to admit.

·         It was a way of showing how we cared and we were going to do everything possible to help them live their lives in a positive manner.

·         When we came to Iowa, every visual image of the past, and losing, had to go.

·         The players wore blazers. It is a way of saying, “I’m going to do my part.” It demonstrates a professional presence and sets an example for the players in the program. To the players, it’s likely that everyone they have known in their life that wore a suit held some position of authority.

·         Win your games and you’ll get where you want to go.

·         Being persistent in what you believe in, sticking to your guns, and when things are bad, finding a way to make them better.

·         His attention to detail and his organizational skills on a day to day basis were just astonishing

·         Commitment - We wanted everyone committed to a common cause.

·         Unity - There was a commonality of purpose and caring about one another and our team.

·         Toughness – There has to be the ability to get thru and extend that breaking point.

·         Expectations – But if you do collectively prepare to win; players & coaches there is every reason to believe that it can culminate in success.

·         Leadership - On a football team, you want only 2 groups, Leaders & Followers

·         Improvement – Do something each day to help you improve in each of the key areas.

·         Eliminate the types of mistakes that we had total control over.

·         Expect more out of ourselves than anyone else.

·         Responsibility – The responsibility comes with holding yourself accountable to achieve the things that you have control over.

·         My message to the team was the greater the investment, the greater the pain in defeat, and I didn’t see any great pain. The pain was going to be equivalent to what you’re putting into it during the course of the week.

·         No task was beneath me. I wanted our players to know that. It was about setting the example.

·         What I assessed the year on was steady improvement made during the course of the year individually, and to some degree, collectively and that we had gotten ourselves into the fourth quarter with a chance to win in four of our games.

·         Confidence is a quality that allows abilities to surface.

·         We didn’t all of a sudden become a better football team. We were a better football team by first being individually better, and then collectively better.

·         The secret to success is constancy of purpose.

·         He had such attention to detail for absolutely every facet of our football program.

·         Here is what we expect the opponent to do, and here is what we want to do.

·         This was a way to have players perform under pressure. You knew they were going to answer most of the questions right, which allowed the team to gain confidence.

·         Make sure you take 5 minutes today to come up with something that can make you a better coach. Practice was to be thought through with a sense of purpose.

·         We play with one heart and eleven heads.