I was talking with a very knowledgeable colleague yesterday and had some things dawn on me about this blog. As everybody knows, I had a recent meltdown where I got frustrated with some things and basically shut everything down. Well, I've cooled my heels since then, been keeping my nose to the grindstone, heavily studying TCU's defense and writing my book on the flexbone offense. This is why my posts have been few and far between lately. I have some things on the horizon that may get me back into the high school game. I'm not 100 percent sure of it yet, but hopefully with a little luck, I will be back to coaching on Friday nights.
Anyhow, back to the reason for this post. My colleague, who is extremely knowledgeable about the game of football, has pointed out some glaring flaws in my blog with some of my posts, especially those about TCU's defense. Now this flaw is that I have reported in a manner that would leave folks to believe that I was sitting in Gary Patterson's office taking dictation. This was not my intent. When I first started looking into the TCU defense, it's manner of divorced front and coverage, split field concept and the pro-style play calling, I did what a LOT of coaches do with college schemes. I took it and tried to mold it to what "I'd always done". So instead of an eight word call for Tite Tank Tank S-Dogs B Silver, I made that into Boston Dogs to shorten the call and turn it into a concept call instead of using the pro-style method. So in those regards, a lot of that stuff was my adaptation of TCU's principles. My colleague pointed out that this can, and has been misleading. Not my intent whatsoever.
Also, some things have been PURE mistakes, which I'm not afraid to admit. It doesn't mean that what I wrote was necessarily bad or you shouldn't use it, it's just maybe not EXACTLY like TCU does it. The reason for this is because all I had in front of me was clinic notes, the 57 page playbook most TCU gurus have in their library, and some game film. Well, I sat down to digest this stuff, because I wanted to install the 4-2-5, but I molded it into "my defense" with my terminology. Looking at film, it's easy to see where Blue, and Robber look so much alike. One clear mistake I made is to make the statement that TCU plays Blue coverage to both sides. Having done further homework, I have been shown that this is actually not the case. They rarely if EVER play Blue to both sides. However, I do, and have done it this way, because I like Blue better than their cover 2. My posts on the matter have been a bit misleading in that they are really my interpretation of what teams are doing based on studying. You have to realize, using this information can come with a price (remember this shit's free, so you get what you pay for). Again, doesn't mean it's wrong, but if you are arguing with a GA from TCU you COULD undoubtedly look like an idiot.
What I did when I started out with this blog is to try and study the game and put things into terms and perspectives that the high school football coach could use at that level. I never meant for this to be a blog where I simply reported what teams did verbatim. I don't have the money or the resources to fly all over the country and clinic with all these staffs to figure all this out. I, like many of you, am DVR'ing every game I can on Saturday's and then breaking these films down in the off season, studying them and reporting my findings. Do I misinterpret things? Yes, hell I'm human too. The thing of it, is I'm not too proud to admit that I've made a mistake, and here's the correct answer.
Lastly, a LOT of the stuff on here is stuff I have run or friends have run and shared with me that has been successful. The Two Gap One Gap (TGOG) stuff is something I did YEARS ago BY ACCIDENT. I wasn't sitting around being a mad scientist in a lab figuring this shit out, I was a quarters coach, trying to figure out how to contain this new generation of running QB's using a pirate stunt when both OLB's in the 4-3 were walked out on number two in a two-by-two set. We simply stumbled on the principle and a friend of mine actually learned how Iowa does it, and uses it to this day with tremendous success. The same thing goes for a lot of the stuff I've posted on here (the 8-2-1 kickoff return, the BOSS blitz, the zone read stunts etc.) are all things I've had a hand in using or developing that have helped coaches and I wanted to share them with you.
The frustrating part is the coaches that email and act like I sold them something with a warranty. Dude, I'm not Sears and you just bought a set of Craftsman wrenches and had one break. I'm not going to rush right over and help you, if I'm busy doing other things. This was the major reason I shut the blog down, and the major reason I'm writing this post today. Now, for those that haven't done this, don't worry, I plan to keep blogging as I feel it's a great outlet, but I want the blog to be special, because since I've started it seems every Tom, Dick and Harry thinks they should start a blog too. Good for them, but I want to do things that set me apart from the crowd. I'm going to keep writing about things I learn, or do, or develop, from MY perspective and not try and mislead folks that, this is HOW somebody else runs something that in all honesty I haven't heard from the "horse's mouth". I hope that will clear some things up, and keep folks happy, and yes I plan on getting back into blogging once things settle down a bit. So have no fear, Football is Life will still be around, just maybe not as many posts as your used to, so please be patient.
For those fixing to start spring ball, I'm hoping and praying I'm among your ranks here soon. Lord knows I miss those Friday Night Lights!!!
Duece