|
A Knights tale - A RL HS Football diary Freshmen style
OK, Poli and Senator have inspired me to finally jump into a RL Football dynasty with the Freshman Team I coach at Westview HS here in Phoenix. This is my 21st year coaching, 12 in Pop Warner, 9 in High School. (I was also offered a Junior College job 3 years back but did not have the time to commit.)
In fact, time is why I asked to be moved back down to Freshman from Varsity 2 years ago. I don't teach, so it is hard being off Campus to give the full commitment required as a varsity coach and truth be known, I enjoy the Freshman level more anyway. I see it as a unique transition period, where the kids really still have a youthful exuberance for the game and are still generally quite raw skill wise, so the opportunity to teach and mentor is much greater. Plus I just have a soft spot for the "knucklehead" freshmen :) Anyway, on to the team. We came to Westview as a staff 6 years ago and now have a pretty solid program in place. Last year we made the state 5A II finals for the first time in school history, falling to our Region rival Centennial 26-7 at Cardinal Stadium. A disappointment to be sure, but still something we are very proud of as a program. We run the Wing-T program wide and the defense varies a bit at each level. On the frosh we will run a base 4-4 cover 3. We had 90 kids come out for the Frosh team this year and have only lost 4 after a week of conditioning and 2 weeks of practice. This past week was the first in full pads and really the beginning of the process of "filtering" the depth chart, as well as any final position moves. We have our traditional program scrimmage/barbeque tomorrow which will determine our initial depth chart as we prepare for our first opponent on September 3rd. I coordinate the Offense and coach Quarterbacks and Linebackers as well. Our D-coordinator coaches the line on both sides of the ball, we also have a coach that handles the RB's, DB's and coordinates special teams, as well as a coach that handles receivers and helps me with the Linebackers and on special teams too. With a little background in place, let's look at the positions. Though we have nearly 90 kids, I will just go over the top three as they stand now at each position (this is always subject to change as we encourage competition and you need to work to hold your job) Also, as starting jobs have not yet been won for most positions, the order I list the players has no bearing at this point. We have a lot of talent again this year and in most cases I am comfortable with any of the three listed at a position seeing the field at this time. Quarterbacks Louis G Jacob S Zach R A solid group that can all play if needed. Louis is the best athlete and also has the best mechanics, but Jacob may have the offense down better at this point, and can certainly move the team. Zach is a mix of both and very solid, just slightly behind the top two. The scrimmage tomorrow will go a long way in determining who starts, though all three could see action in the opener if things go well. I really want to get a look at all 3 in "battle" if you will and then define roles more from there. Tailbacks Shayne M Tywon S Guillermo N Perfect Wing-T tailbacks here and all three have picked up the offense well. Shayne and Guillermo have blazing speed, but distinctly different styles. Shayne has superb agility and loses barely any speed on his cuts. Guillermo is more of a slasher and runs a bit high for my liking right now, but has great acceleration and turns it on when he finds the seam. Tywon has both qualities and though not quite as fast as the other two, still has plenty of speed and solid instincts. Shayne is the most complete, but we lose very little with the other two and all three can take it house at any time. I have the enviable dilemma here of having three solid options. We also have a couple of others who are better than average below these guys. Fullbacks Jamal D Dylan U Jesus G There are actually 4 kids here who are serviceable, which is important as we rely heavily on this position in our offense. As those familiar with the Wing-T know the Fullback is a weapon, not just a blocker. Jamal is a manchild in the making, speed, power, but very raw. In our program kids learn a position on both sides of the ball, but I will limit most of his reps to offense to develop him faster. Dylan and Jesus are both hard runners with above average speed and are seasoned players. They are probably the two best inside linebackers as well at the moment, so reps here will be limited. We do play kids on both sides of the ball when needed, but with almost 90 players out we have more than enough talent to avoid starting anyone both ways. Wingbacks Jamal K James O Chuks A Another spot where we really have 4 solid kids, but the 4th will likely play Free safety before getting meaningful reps here. This is a hybrid of the TB and FB positions. You need to be a solid blocker to make our strong side sweep effective as well as being able to chip in 5-8 carries a game to keep the defense honest to the weakside. All three guys can get the down block for us and are capable of running the ball, though they have all had some issues grasping the theory of the Wing-T sweep, which is a cutback sweep and not a beat everyone to the sideline type of play that they seem to think it is. This job is wide open between the top 4 right now, but I am more than confident that whoever emerges will give us exactly what we need from this position. Offensive Line Quick Tackle - Ryan F, Daniel A, Chris P Quick Guard - Joseph O, Jonathon A, Matthew F Center - Fredrick F, Josiah B, Quinten C Strong Guard - Mario R, David D, Dayne G Strong Tackle - Damien C, Cody R, Andrew C Tight End - Jesse M, Antonio A, Malik T I spend all of indivdual and group time with the skill kids and pretty much leave the O-Line Coach alone here in setting the depth chart initially. He has been with us the entire time at this school and does a great job with the line. I really only focus here during team offensive periods and will give him feedback based on things I see there. We have 30 linemen on this squad so it is tough to get maximum reps everyday and because of that we are a little behind where we usually are....but that is a GOOD thing in this case as it will give lots of kids a chance to develop. Right now my biggest here concern is with getting the guards quicker on their pulls, which is mostly because they are still thinking too much. We have some athletic kids at guard and they will be fine once it becomes instinctive. Thinking and not reacting costs you 1-2 steps on the football field and that is the difference between a big play and a 3 yard loss in a lot of cases, so as we pare the line down, the kids identified as being able to get into the game rotation will get most of the reps. (We rotate when talent permits to keep our linemen fresh) Some kids that stand out here. Damien C is as intense as any kid I have seen on the frosh level and he will do a wonderful job crushing opposing D-linemen on the downblock this year. Jessie M is dinged up right now, but has amazing hands and moves real well for a bigger kid. We like to throw to the TE and he will be a load to bring down in space. Ryan is probably our most athletic down lineman and is a sharp kid as well and Mario is looking to be the closest to getting completely comfortable at guard. He pulls well, we just need to adjust his blocking paths a bit. Split Ends Robert M Joseph M Joseph K Giovanni B DeAndre S Anthony R D Jones Sorry to all you fans of the spread offense, but we do not air it out. For a split end with us, a good year is 6-10 catches. That said we have some kids here we can throw to and a couple of legit deep threats, most notably DeAndre and Anthony. DeAndre came out late, but has speed and exceptional hands and once he catches up to the others will be good. Anthony was one of only 8 freshmen players invited to our out of state camp in July and broke his wrist there. He should be back for game 2 and will contribute immediately. The others on this list are solid possession receivers who can all help when called upon, which will be usually to block a CB or S, but we will still throw them a bone here and there. I will post a preview of the Defense tomorrow before I leave for our program scrimmage. Our part in the scrimmage will be as follows. Our current 3's and 4's on Offense and Defense go against each other for 10 plays. Then our 2's do the same. Then our #1 Offense goes against the #2 JV Defense for 10 plays and finally the #1 JV Offense goes against our #1 Defense for 10 plays. As you can see with only 60 plays, it will be tough to get all 80+ eligible kids in, but we will do our best. We always scrimmage the JV's with our best kids (at this time) and always set the goal of being the first Freshmen team to beat the JV (We never have, but you need a goal) This year, as always will be a tall order as our Frosh went 8-1 last year and will be very formidible, despite a few of the key kids from that team now being up on Varsity. We do have a very talented group and if they stay focused and humble (our jobs as coaches to keep them that way) they could be the best frosh class in the 6 years we have been at this school. Tomorrow will be a good yardstick of where we are. :popcorn: |
excellent, another football program dynasty! I love this stuff!
I'll be following along. |
I think Steve's team, the Trojans, may end up using some Wing-T. I hope we have the horses to stop it in our scrimmage next week.
|
Quote:
At least running DW you will be familiar with the blocking schemes on the Wing-T staples, trap, sweep, boot, belly, etc. How are you having your Linebackers key it? I imagine it would be extremely hard to teach your inside backers to key guards at this age level. Your outside guys could probably learn the near back Wing-T keys though. The program scrimmage went well last night, better than I had expected in fact. Our #1 Offense and #1 Defense went against the #2 JV Defense and #1 JV Offense and we tied them 7-7 (This is a first as the Frosh usually lose 14-0, 21-0 most years) Our 2's and 3's went against each other and did some good things. I have some other things to do, but I will finish the Defensive preview and touch more on the scrimmage tomorrow. One other high note is we probably had close to 1000 people out for the scrimmage/barbeque and 170 kids suited up between all levels of the program. Really great to see program continuing to grow each year and the community support has been excellent!!! |
Defensive Preview
Again a lot of talent, led by what can potentially be a very physical linebacking corps and some strong kids up front. Again we play a 4-4/cover 3 base and will be in this Defense over 90% of the time. In goal line situation we will run man and also drop our rover back and play a cover 4 in very long yardage of prevent situations.
Defensive Line Defensive End - Cody R, Jessie M, Chris P Defensive Tackle – Adam L, Marcus B, Matt, M Nose Guard - Raoul H, Bobby C, Damian C Stud End - Malik T, Justin T, Andrew C A really big group inside who should control their gaps well against most anyone we face. Raoul in particular is quick off the ball and tough to move for a big man. He doesn’t play any Offense so we can get 35-40 plays a game from him hopefully. Our DE plays in a 7 technique (inside the TE) so he is to be good with is hands and strong to fight across down blocks and maintain the C gap. We feel we have 3 guys capable here. Stud End is our pass rush guy and also has weak side leverage responsibilities. Malik us tall, rangy and gets off of blocks well and we won’t lose much when Justin is in there either. Linebackers Sam – Antonio A, Chuks A, Joseph M Mike – Dylan U, Francisco S, Joseph F Will – Jesus G, Mario R, Joseph O Rover – James O, Joshua K, Marcus R We have done some moving around here after pads came on, but the two inside guys (Dylan and Jesus) have looked solid from the beginning. Both are big agile kids and will give us the physical presence we need inside. Right now they both need to get a little more reactive on their keys, but we open up with a team that runs mostly I, and their keys against this Offense are much easier than the Wing-T keys we had to work for our scrimmage. Antonio looks fairly entrenched at the outside, but Chuks can hit and will push him once he gets caught up (he came out a week late). Rover is up in the air and I am waiting for one of the top three to show me some physicality. James has it, he is struggling to trust his keys and playing slow because of it. Joshua and Marcus are both good with technique and will get early reps until someone separates themselves from the pack. Secondary Field Corner – Tywon S, Guillermo N, Jamal K Boundary Corner – Robert M, Shayne M, Andrew J Free Safety – Jacob S, John V, Anthony R Tywon is a great cover guy and will line up to the TE side, which means he will need to be physical if there is not a flanker to his side. Guillermo is not afraid to stick it in there, but is not as good in coverage as Tywon, while Jamal K is an enigma. He plays twice as physical on the offensive side as he does on D and I am hoping it is just a comfort thing right now. The boundary corners will be our lockdown guys and all can cover well. In addition, Shayne is a tremendous hitter, but will not see the field much on D as right now he looks like a lock at #1 TB. Essentially this job is wide open for either Robert or Andrew to claim. Anthony is our best FS, but is out with a broken wrist. His cast comes off Friday, so he may be ready for game two, but will have to work his way back into the starting job. In the meantime both Jacob and John are fine and Louis G (Our leading QB candidate right now can play there as well. Quote:
Welcome aboard, I can't tell you how glad I am to get into game prep routine finally...Fall camp can be like Cabin fever sometimes and the Kids are getting real antsy to hit someone in other colors. |
Scrimmage
We have a lot to tweak, mainly guards getting guicker in their pulls and our Centers going the right way on sweep and Bootleg pass. Also we could have done better with blocking downfield, but we work that more after we get the point of attack blocking a bit cleaner than it is now.
The scrimmage was set up so our Offense and Defense both had 30 plays. The first set of 10 was our #3/4 Offense vs our #3/4 Defense. Then 10 plays with our #2 Offense and Defense against each other. Then our #1 Offense for 10 plays against the JV #2 Defense and our #1 Defense against the JV #1 Offense (they subbed in 2's here and there as well) All Offensive series start from the 40 and go back if you don't get a first down in 4 plays. Also any turnovers bring it back to the 40 as well. I won't use our terminiology in the breakdown (since it wouldn't really mean anything) but instead just give the generic description of the play. First Set #3 Frosh O vs #3 Frosh D 1-Weakside Belly: 11 yds (QT and QG made a nice hole, as good as we ran it all night) 2-Buck Sweep Strong: -2 yds (Missed down block on DT and QB never got handoff away) 3-Bootleg Pass Strong: Sack -4 yds (Center went backside instead of playside) 4-Buck Sweep Weak: 14 yds (TB gave us a great edge and guards got upfield well) 5-Strongside Belly: 7 yds (Got the 1st down, this play needs work, it was all FB) 6-Buck Sweep Strong: 14 yds TD (TB could have been more patient, but result was good) 7-Bootleg Pass Weak: 9 yds (QB stumbled and kept the ball, good choice on his behalf as it was covered) 8-Trap Weak: 8 yds (Again mostly our FB, this is tight against our D alignment, but we got decent gains all night) 9-Buck Sweep Strong: 18 yds (Good patience by TB this time, set blocks nicely) 10-Trap Strong: 5 yds (missed a second TD by inches, looked fairly good) Series Stats: Rushing: 10 - 80 yds 1 TD. Passing: 0 - 0 (1 Sack, 1 Scramble) Second Set #2 Frosh O vs #2 Frosh D 1-Trap Strong: 7 yds (We double teamed the trap man = bad, but free NG just missed the tackle) 2-Buck Sweep Strong: 9 yds (Point of attack a bit congested, nice cutback by our TB) 3-Buck Sweep Weak: 8 yds (Again looked very good, defensed well, blocked better) 4-Buck Sweep Strong: 2 yds (WB missed his block on the Sam and backside guard tripped, not pretty) 5-Belly Waggle Pass: 8 yds (Great fake by QB, took what the coverage gave him) 6-Bootleg pass Strong: Incomplete (FB wide open for TD but dropped ball) 7-Strongside Belly: 6 yds TD (QB came too deep and FB not wide enough, but he runs hard, carried 3 into the endzone) 8-Weakside Belly: 8 yds (Again looked pretty good, our TB's all block well, which is huge for this play) 9-Trap Weak: 14 yards: (Not pretty, but the hole was enough and our FB moved the pile again) 10-Bootleg Pass Weak: 12 yds (real nice job on this play, best of the series, we end up on the 6 yard line) Another pretty solid series as the skill level jumps up a bit Series Stats: Rushing: 7 - 62 yds 1 TD. Passing: 2 - 3 20 yds Third Set #1 Frosh O vs #2 JV D 1-Belly Waggle Pass: 11 yds (Fake could have better, but blocked well and our TB made 2 defenders miss) 2-Buck Sweep Strong: -3 (Center missed front side A gap, this worries me a bit as all 3 centers are having some trouble here. It will be fixed ASAP) 3-Buck Sweep Weak: 14 yds (This is usually just a keep the Defense honest play for me, but as well as it is working tonight I will run it a lot more in game one) 4-Bootleg Pass Strong: Incomplete (Executed fairly well, our FB dropped the ball) 5-Weakside Belly: 18yds TD (Blocked very well up front and our FB ran over a DB to take it home) 6-Buck Sweep Strong: 5 yds (WB missed his block, SG did good job picking up the leakage, but the CB was free to make the tackle) 7-Weakside Belly: 6 yds (This one got clogged up, FB bounced outside and did what he could) 8-Bootleg Pass Weak: Incomplete (Routes and protection were good, just good coverage by the Defense who knocked the pass down) 9-Buck Sweep Weak: 6 yds (Nice job by the WB to pick his way through a tight hole) 10-Strongside Belly: 2 yds (Hole was there inside, FB got inpatient and tired to stretch it) Series Stats: Rushing: 7 - 48 yds 1 TD. Passing: 1 - 3 11 yds Overall scrimmage Stats: Rushing: 24 - 190 yds 3 TDs. Passing 3 - 6 31 yds. If this was a game I would definitely take it. I am very happy and after we fix the few issues we have, this group will definitely be potent offensively if we take care of the ball....This leads to most important stat of the scrimmage, zero turnovers!!! The kids really played hard and out Defense held the JV's to a single TD as well for the 7-7 tie, as mentioned before something never accomplished by a freshmen class before. We gave up a TD pass on the JV's first play on a blown coverage, but hung in there getting a sack, a fumble recovery and a tackle for loss. They also had 3-4 fairly good runs, but we bent and did not break. The most impressive part of our Defensive series though was that our kids ran to the ball well and played very physical, never shying away contact against the JV's. This will serve us well as we have have a couple of physical teams on our schedule and I know our kids will get after it now! |
We watched film of the scrimmage then focused on installing Power to both sides. The first film session with Freshmen is always the same, they look at it more as entertainment then learning and today was no different :)
Unfortunately it carried over onto to the field and we got behind due to lack of focus and had to completely skip our special teams period which was punt return today. We then worked a very short Defensive period focusing on technique and tackling with DB's, Linemen and Backers all in different groups. I then ran through the I formation keys with the Backers focusing on outside flow tonight. We then ran gassers and discussed the reasons why we had a subpar practice, talking about how focus is habit forming, both when you have it and when you don't and the need to develop good work habits now that will carry over onto the game. Tomorrow will be heavy on Defense and we will run scout plays against the Defense from last years game with Maryvale as I don't think they will change a great deal. We will also put in coverage and front adjustments on the off chance they do show us some different looks. Mondays are usually the most likely day to have and I hope this is it for the week as we 5 practices and a walk through left before we play, and everyone of them needs to be on crisp. |
I'll see some tape of what the "Tigers" did last year, as well as what their opponents did. I suspect what I'll see is a very simplified offense. I've already been told that this is the first time most of the boys have ever pulled on the line and that it's the first time any of them got a playbook.
|
Awesome, i love real life dynasties (Senator's brother on is my all time fav one in FOFC).
Btw, question about HS football. Do you have different leagues by group ages? it's not like college football where freshmen play alongside with seniors? I thought it was the same in HS football, with only one league for the whole HS level. |
There are essentially three, maybe even more that I don't know about.
Freshmen typically have their own league. Sophomores and some juniors will typically fill out a junior varsity team if they're not receiving substantial playing time with the varsity as well (you can tack freshmen on as well). There is also, of course, the varsity. It varies, though. In Harrisburg, Arkansas (at least in 1992), freshmen played with the junior high team, and that's generally how it worked for the other schools in the area as well. Sophomores and up all played varsity. We technically had 5 "B" games scheduled for the backups, but they were never played. We really didn't have the depth to have a "B" squad, anyhow. |
Quote:
I gave him as much unbiased advice as I could both offensively and defensively, where I don't think he's quite sure what he's doing there either. I'll see soon enough how he's doing. |
Quote:
Like Poli said it is broken down by grade level. In my time Coaching HS we have never had a freshman on the varsity. There have been a couple of kids that have come through that could have done it physically, but mentally they are nowhere near ready. Probably the best chance for a freshman to play varsity is at WR and since we don't throw a lot most of our best skill kids play in the backfield and/or secondary. So for the most part it is Seniors, Juniors and a few Sophmores on varsity. Most of the Sophmores and a a few Juniors who are small, or maybe not as talented on the JV and all the Freshmen play together. We also do not cut at our school, so anyone who comes out makes the team. In addition to this, high schools are broken down into different divisions based on enrollment. In AZ there are seven classifications 5A-1 (The biggest) 5A-2 (Our division) 4A-1, 4A-2, 3A, 2A and 1A (they play 8 man Football in this classification) Short note on tonights practice, offense was improved, but still a notch below Saturday, I basically challenged the kids to work on one aspect of their game here to improve each day. Before our opener I still want to get 2 pass plays in, unbalanced and trade (Where the Tight end will line up on one side, then shift to the other after the defense gets set) Trade is effect against teams that align their Defense to your strength (Our first game opponent doesn't) so no big deal if that is not in. Also I could make do without the passes, but unbalanced is a must as they played a 6-2 against us about half the game last year and unbalanced created havoc with it. There is just no way adjust a 6-2 to unbalanced without leaving something to exploit with the Wing-T. I am really trying to stay positive about the offense, because in all honestly we are able to put a scout Defense on the field that is as good as some starting Defenses we will face this year, so it will only benefit us. Our NT Raoul H in particular is a thorn in the side. He is 3rd or 4th string center and starts at NT so he takes all the first D reps and all the scout reps too. He is going to create havoc if he is not double teamed this year. In addition our starting Stud End Malik is 3rd TE, so he gets a lot of scout reps as well and had a sack and a tackle for loss against the JV Saturday, so I am happy we are getting such a good look. Our scout Offense also executed the plays we saw in last years opener against this team and the Defense got their keys down fairly well. My only concern here is getting our backside LB'ers to play the proper technique when flow goes away as they ran toss fake, naked boot on us several times last year. This will be a focus of group work th erest of the week. Right now we are working 3 kids deep at a lot of positions still (4 at a few) but as we get closer to the opener, I will pare reps down on both sides of the ball to the 1's and 2's only (with a few select 3's here and there) During our last full pad practice Monday the 1's will take 65-70 percent of the reps, with the rest split amongst players that can help us in the first game. |
Quote:
It does take a lot of reps and a lot of patience, we have less in now than we did in each of the last 2 years. If we don't have the plays we have in currently looking crisp by the end of practice Thursday I will scrap putting in the last 2 pass plays I want and go with what we have, which is Boot pass strong and weak, Belly pass strong and Belly waggle. I would will also trim the gameplan down if needed if anything does not look right. Currently I have no plans to run weakside trap as their 6-2 front things really tight to the weakside and we are just not quick enough up front yet to pull it off. If I was Steve I would start with just 5 basic plays right now. The Buck series both ways, Sweep, Trap and Boot, actually instead of trap I would probably run wedge with this age group, since it doesn't alter the backfield action and is easier to teach. I would also put in belly both ways and Belly pass. That is a pretty good starting point for young kids. I wouldn't worry about power and counter until later, if at all, and would not even try to put in veer, scissors or reverse with this age. Of course you would tell him just the opposite ;) |
I actually feel pretty bad for the guy. I think he's in over his head. He didn't really have a plan offensively, defensively, or on special teams. As I recall, he was all for letting me do the double wing with him from day one. I had little doubt that we'd be running my defense shortly thereafter before I took over my own team.
For me, I had been getting ready, preparing for the opportunity if it came up. There wasn't a question of what I'd do, just how I'd do it. Steve ended up drafting a few kids with dads that have coached in the past. He basically handed them the ball as far as offense and defense. I think he's regretting that now. |
The Buttons
As anyone who has ever coached knows, finding the right buttons to push with each group of kids to get them to a high level mentally, is just as important as X and O's. Along that vein, you sometimes need to know when you are pushing certain buttons too much and recognizing when it is you and not the kids that need to do something different.
After our solid showing in the scrimmage, three of the first four practices this week were mediocre at best. We really stressed staying humble and focused after a good showing against the JV and hammering into them that there is still a lot to do. There is nothing wrong with that approach, but I think we were getting too wrapped up in it. After a poor practice Monday we were a little hard on the kids and stressed that they needed to remain focused to reach their potential, push themselves harder etc, etc. They do have the potential to be one of our best Freshmen classes ever and the initial mistake was probably telling them that. That mistake was probably compounded with repeating the message about focus, effort, potential, in various forms ad nauseum after lackluster practices Tuesday and Wednesday and a better, but still not consistent practice Thursday. I thought about things a lot Thursday night and realized that we as coaches had gotten too wrapped up in how good this group can be and as a consequence had gotten feeling pressure they should not be feeling. We have bonded well with these kids, they still are trying hard and still have a great attitude......Despite all that, there were times they looked slow, confused and on a couple of occasions just plain flat. Sure it is hot (102 - 110 degrees during most of our practice) and there are lots of kids so the reps are not as frequent (Which helps keep tempo up) but those were not sole culprits. I realized this because our scout teams were flying around just fine, making life miserable at times for our 1's and 2's on offense and occasionally busting a big play on our defense. We can put some pretty talented kids on scout due to our depth and that is part of it, but more than that our scout kids were just playing Football and having fun. They weren't feeling pressure to be precise, we merely lined them up in our first opponents schemes and turned them loose. I was a little upset with myself that after 20+ years of doing this, I hadn't realized sooner that we had needlessly burdened the kids with too many expectations. More than the heat, scout teams and boredom that sets in after 3 weeks of hitting each other, it was we as coaches that were making the kids slow and sloppy at times because they wre thinking too much and trying too hard to live up to expectations they should never have been aware of. Over the years I have rarely talked about winning and records and all the end result stuff. I have always been heavy on effort, passion and love of the game. If you have talent, teach good technique and implement sound schemes the results take care of themselves. Why the hell would we change a good formula that has always worked well for us just because we have a special feeling about this group? Because sometimes as coaches we are stupid! Today I talked to the kids before practice and told them to forget all about 9-0, about how good they could be and about potential. I explained Football is simple. You play with a fire, you run, block, tackle and most of all have fun. The only game that matters is the next one and when that game comes all that matters is that you play with paasion and leave it all on field.....for nobody but yourselves and your teammates. After meetings, instead of letting the kids walk to the field as they got ready in small clusters, we made them wait and took the field 2 by 2 as a team, the same way we do on game day. Once practice started we were upbeat, energetic and made it a point to keep the kids loose. Big shocker that we had our best practice in over a week!! The line was quick off the ball, the backs decisive and the defense aggressive. Our scout team still busted their butts, but their big plays were few and far between as we consistently moved the ball well and were lights out on defense, especially during our goaline period. The difference after practice was noticeable as well. Kids wanted to go more, they were more excited than they had been all week and all of them left the field with smiles.....the heat, pain and exhaustion suddenly didn't seem to matter at all. We gave them the week end off and will have one full pads practice Monday, a light contact walkthrough Tuesday and then it is game time. I finally have complete confidence we will be ready to get after it and the Kids feel it too and it showed in their body language. Sometimes the buttons you don't push make all the difference. I can't wait for Wednesday! :) |
Starters
OK, my backfield starters are set for the first game, though they are still some battles going on. We use a rotation system which covers 5 series on O and D. We usually get 5-7 possessions a half so we will go through the rotation and then back to the top. In instances where things are tight we will override that and send the first rotation (Starters) in as needed
Backfield Starters QB - Louis G (Still close with Jacob S they will both play in rotation) TB - Shayne M (He gets 4 of 5 rotations, he will not play Defense) FB - Jamal D (Another close battle, he gets 3 rotations, Jesus G and Dylan U one each) WB - Jamal K (He also gets 3 rotations, James O and Chuks A one each) All these guys can play and we won't lose a whole lot with any of them in there. This gets them all experience early in a game we should win and will insure we are the fresher team in the second half when the heat really starts to take it's toll. The starters on the line will be as follows. We will decide what other players get into the rotation Monday. Starting O-Line TE - Jessie M ST - Damian C SG - Mario R C - Frederick F QG - Joseph O QT - Ryan F We will also decide on a 3 split end rotation Monday as well, there are 6 kids competing right now for those spots. Two will likely be DeAundre S and Robert M. Defense The Starting D-line will be. DE - Cody R DT - Chris P NG - Raoul H (Teams that don't double him will be in trouble) Stud - Malik T (Has been a solid force on the weakside) There are likely 3-5 others that will see rotation time here during the first game. Linebackers I have my rotation set for Linebackers and the starters here will be Sam - Antonio A (Also in rotation will be Chuks A) Mike - Dylan U (Francisco S will see time at both Mike and Will) Will - Jesus G (Neiko A may get some regular rotation time here as well) Rover - James O (Curtis J has come on strong and will get in as well) There are 3-5 others that may/will get in depending on how the game goes. Secondary Our DB coach won't decide until Monday, but frontrunners are Tywon. (He will start at one corner for sure) The other spot is up for grabs between Robert M, Guillermo N and Andrew J. Safety will be manned by Jacob S (Unless he eventually starts at QB) Louis G (Same) though the best may be Anthony R, out until at least game 2, probably 3. (He got his cast off Friday and needs 1-2 weeks of rehab. I already have my gameplan done. I may change a couple of plays in my script (I script the first 10 plays to check alignments and adjustments to certain things) but we everything in that I wanted to get in for the first game, so we are ready to go for the most part. |
Man I miss coaching...
|
Walk through tonight in half pads, 3/4 speed, light contact.
Skill kids came out first and stretched and then went through the situational passing plays (3rd and 7+ and 3rd and 4-6) for the week in skellies vs scout D in a 4 under 3 deep coverage, which our opponent will play. While we did this lineman stayed an extra 15 minutes in the class room to go over offensive rules/adjustments and defensive front adjustments. They then joined us for our team stretch, then we went through a few brisk reps on each special team against air. Special focus on punt return getting the return team on the field and the defense off. Next up I went through the 10 play script with both the first and second huddles alternating plays so both huddles ran every play in the script once. We did this vs a full defense, 3/4 speed to thud, nobody taken to the ground. Next came the short yardage plays. I have three select plays this week for 3rd/4th down, 3 yards to go or less. Finally we lined up first team Defense and talked through formation adjustment and responsibilities one last time. Normally this practice should go 3:30 to 5:00, but as it was the first pregame walk through of the season we ran 35 minutes over...arrgh!! Most of that was due to special teams as we take this area real serious, so we took a couple of extra reps in each area and also talked through some of the more important coaching points. Tomorrow is the big day.....I will not be able to focus at all at work tomorrow!! After going through the depth chart we will have 39 kids in rotation tomorrow, not including special teams, where another 7-8 not in regular rotation will play. That is an all time high and speaks very well of our depth. Hopefully they all respond well in their first time under the lights. We also have no player starting both ways for the first time ever at this school, which is very encouraging. The previous low was 2 two way starters last year. The only bad news is our starting FB Jamal D will miss the first quarter as he our pre practice meeting yesterday and 4 rotation players will also miss the first quarter for missing the same reason. Opening day at last :) |
Quote:
I assume they were late? This perspetive is very neat. I can't wait to hear how your team does. |
Ideally, I could punish my guys for being late or absent. Realistically, though, I'd be sending out a guard, tight end, and a fullback for my first series on offense.
|
Quote:
|
It definitely is a lot easier to apply discipline when you have almost 80 kids as opposed to 17-20 for sure. It also makes starters sit up and take notice when the kid behind them performs well and shows he could do the job just as good, as we didn't miss a beat with those kids sitting the first quarter.
I am tired so I won't get into too much detail tonight, but we jumped out to a 41-0 haltime lead against Maryvale, played 3's and 4's the entire second half and ended up winning 47-0. Their kids played hard and didn't quit, but we just have a lot more talent and definitely more depth, as they only had around 30-35 kids on their team. It's a tough place to coach and their coaches are all nice guys, who care about the kids alot. It is just an uphill battle to consistently win there and I have a lot of respect for the guys that coach there. It is definitely a challenge. Anyway, great start for the young Knights, we have some good teaching opportunities on the things that need fixing and some good things to build on as well. I will post a more detailed recap tomorrow. :) |
How exciting. Granted you are who you thought you are (to paraphrase Denny) but still exciting. Congrats.
|
Game 1 recap
Ok, finished breaking down the film, so I will give a little more detail on our opening win last night.
We won the toss and deferred and Maryvale elected to receive. Jacob S is our kicker and he kicked it over the heads of their return men into the end zone for a touch back.....This is a great weapon to have on a Freshman team :) We held them 3 and out and Guillermo N took the punt 53 yards for the score. We missed the XP to lead 6-0. Another 3 and out for Vale and after another great punt return from Guillermo we take over at their 36. First play I call sweep and Shayne M takes it 36 yards to the house, Jesus G (Starting at FB with Jamal D out until the 2nd quarter) then runs in the 2 pt conversion and we lead 14-0. Another 3 and out and a shanked punt and we are in business at their 26. Jesus gets 5 on weakside belly. I then call our one and only pass play of the game and our TE Jessie M can't quite corral it in the end zone and it is 3rd and 5. I go back to sweep and Shayne takes it 21 yards for his second TD in as many carries and we lead 20-0. We force another 3 and out after our second sack of the game and Guillermo again sets us up with a solid punt return to the Panther 31. This time we go with the weakside buck sweep and Jamal K takes it all the way for the score and a 27-0 lead. We force another 3 and out and this time they snap over the punters head and we take over at their 8. We are definitely clicking but field position is playing a huge factor right now as we have started every drive inside their 40!! With a first and goal Jamal D in the game for the first time goes 6 yds on trap, then 2 yds on strong side belly and the XP boosts our lead to 34-0. We then sub some kids in on defense and they are able to get a couple of first downs, but then fumble and we take over on their 44 yard line, our worst field position of the first half. Tywon S is now in at TB in place of Shayne and we run strong side sweep again, different player, same result as Tywon goes 44 yards for another score and we take a 41-0 lead into the locker room. Our first half stats, only 9 offensive plays!! 0-1 passing 8 rushes for 148 yards and 5 scores In addition Guillermo (our 3rd TB) has over 100 yds on punt returns and a score. In the second half we played our 2nd, 3rd and 4th strings almost exclusively. A couple of starters got some action on defense early in the 3rd quarter, but after Maryvales first series they were done for the night. The backups played Maryvale tough, we had a decent little drive in the third that ate some clock, but no points. They were able to get inside our 10 yard line in the 4th quarter, but our defense held and kept them out of the end zone. Our last big moment of the night came after that stop, when Andrew J (Our 4th TB, yes we are deep here) took it 74 yards to the house for our final score. All in all a good opening win. Final Score Westview 47 Maryvale 0 Our first O-line looked very good, though we need to shore up our strong side belly quite a bit, but apart from that they opened some nice holes. I would also like to see the trap develop a bit quicker, but it is always a little slow early on. Defense played very well and the only concerns there are that we lost leverage a couple of times against the toss play and also overpursued on a couple of plays, leaving cutback lanes open, that we were able to close pretty quickly with our speed. Special teams was also a bit of a fire drill as we were short a couple of times on punt return and we worked all special teams a lot today in practice, mostly just getting on and off the field. Not all that abnormal for the first game, but still aggravating and it will be fixed by next week. And finally my favorite stat of the game....we had 76 kids dressed out and every single one of them got into the game for at least a play or two. Nothing makes me happier than that!!! Final game stats Rushing 24 carries 263 yards 6 TD's Passing 0-1 (Sorry all you run and shoot guys) Plus a special teams score. Leaders Andrew J 1-74, 1 TD Shayne M 2-57, 2 TD's Tywon S 1-44, 1 TD Jamal K 1-31, 1 TD We had 12 different kids carry the ball overall and obviously our starters got a lot of rest tonight and we had no injuries of any consequence (Another of my favorite post game stats) Tonights practice was light, focusing on special teams as mentioned and fixing some things on offense, as well as installing 2 new running plays for game two (Our entire base offensive package is now in) I will add a play here and there and we always have a trick play ready every week. We did not use the one I had for Maryvale, so that bullet will stay in the chamber for next week. :D |
Just a quick update on how the program did overall against Maryvale for the week.
Our game of course was 47-0 JV won Thursday 52-8 Varsity won last night 53-7 (Over 300 yards rushing and almost 200 passing) A good week for the Knights, but it will get tougher this week. Off to practice now. |
Didn't get to post any practice notes as I had some work projects to do after practice, but it was a good week overall.
We played Pinnacle tonight and came away with the win 29-8 with the game being called at the end of the third quarter due to lightning. We had a first down inside their 20 when this happened, so we were in total control at the time of the stoppage. Again I will post a more detailed report after I watch film, but we were off to a bad start before we even left the school. One of the buses they sent was out of gas, so we had to wait for a second bus. We loaded the starters and special teams players on the first bus and kept the rest of the kids waiting for the second one. Despite a 20 minute head start the first bus got there only 5 minutes before the second due to the slowest driver ever.....and we didn't get on the field to warm up until 5:30....A half hour late!!! Not surprisingly we were out of sorts in the first quarter and it showed against the always aggressive Pinnacle Defense, who did a good job containng us. When we did execute we shot ourselves in the foot with four 1st quarter penalties, two of which took first downs away after 4th and short conversions. They didn't fair much better despite having great field position and it was 0-0 after one. We finally settled down scoring 21 points in the second quarter to take a 21-0 lead into the half. The highlight was one of the most spectacular runs you will see at any level. I need to find a way to upload it. I called 50 Trap and they stuffed Jamal D at the point of attack, he tried to bounce outside and got drilled three times, but kept bouncing off tackles, finally just as they were about to whistle the play dead, he shook off the Pinnacle tacklers, reversed his field and then outran everyone 70 plus yards for the score. This came after we popped the trap clean on the drive before and he went 60 yards barely touched. We traded TD's after half and then we were driving to score again after an interception when the game was called. Will have stats and drive summaries tomorrow......A very bizarre 29-8 win and the Freshmen Knights are 2-0. :D |
Ok time to get up to date, first off to finish up on the Pinnacle game. After the scoreless first quarter, we drove to the pinnacle 46 and Jamal D popped an inside trap for the score from there. We kicked off and Pinnacle answered with a solid drive of their own getting inside our 20 before we stiffened and held on 4th down. This is were the aforementioned run by Jamal D took place.
We scored on the first trap from unbalanced as the Defense overplayed the unbalanced side, so we came out in it again. My first play was strong side power (66 gap in our terminology, which indicates the blocking adjustment as well) This went for 6, so I called 50 trap again on 2nd and 4 from our own 19. Jamal seriously broke 9 tackles as he got stuffed, reversed field and then sprinted to paydirt. (I promise I will get a video up) We stuffed them and after a bad snap on a punt took over at their 21. On our second play Louis G found our TE Jesse M on strong boot from 16 yards out to give us a 21 - 0 Halftime lead. In the third Pinnacle put a nice drive together converting 2 3rd and long situations and scored on one of our staples, weakside boot. This was particularly aggravating since we see it so much and they ran it three times on this drive and we could not cover it. On the play they scored on we even know it was coming and were telling the kids to watch for it. Everything bad becomes a good coaching opportunity though and we talked through it in films and got it fixed. They went for 2 to make it 21-8. We got the ball and promptly took it right back down the field. They were really flowing hard to the ball now trying to create a turnover, so I called Counter for the first time. (I had just put it in the week of the game) It worked like a charm for 19 yards with Shayne M the ball carrier. 2 plays later it was Shayne again taking it home from 21 yards out on strongside sweep. The snap on the extra point was bad and Louis executed our "fire" play to perfection, hitting Jesse M for the 2 pt conversion. (Fire is our automatic on a bad snap) We then stopped Pinnacle on their next drive, when Jacon S picked off a 4th down desperation pass and went back to work. The highlight of the drive was another solid run (20 yds) by Shayne M on strongside counter. This was the last play of the game as they called with 1:03 left in the 3rd quarter due to lightning, giving us the 29 - 8 win. Stats through 2 games VS Maryvale Rushing 24 - 263 yds, 6 TD Passing 0 - 1 @ Pinnacle Rushing 19 - 261 yds, 3 TD Passing 4 - 6 for 28 yds, 1 TD Leaders Rushing Jamal D: 12 - 174, 3 TD's Shayne M: 11 - 150, 3 TD's Andrew J: 1 - 74, 1 TD Tywon S: 2 - 43 1 TD Jamal K: 3 - 39 1 TD Passing Louis G: 4 - 7, 28 yds, 1 TD Receiving Jesse M: 2 - 19 yds, 1 TD Shayne M: 2 - 9 yds |
Had our final walk through before our game at Deer Valley tomorrow and it was not as crisp as I like. This game will be a battle and will be won by the team that makes the fewest mistakes. This is the best freshman team they have had in probably 7-8 years and they will be looking for some payback after walloping we gave them last year. I finally got my hands on some film of them Sunday and they line up in a lot of different sets to try and take advantage of matchups or catch you lined up incorrectly. We stressed lining up against their different formations a lot yesterday and today, so hopefully being out of position won't be an issue.
They have a big line and some good athletes and their starters can definitely play with ours. We have more depth and my plan tomorrow will be to control the ball, wear them down and take control in the second half. Make no mistake though, this is worthy opponent and we will need to be at our best. My biggest concern right now is pass coverage, they are a 50/50 run/pass team which is rare for freshmen and with one starting corner out injured and his backup missing practice today with an illness, we are not as solid as I would like. Offensively I think we got everything fixed we need, but they are very aggressive on defense (blitz 60-70% of the time) so we can not get rattled. We are stressing to the kids to just block your rules and everything else falls into place. I have yet to use a trick play this year, so the one I had set for Maryvale is still in the chamber, I will run it tomorrow no matter what as I don't like hanging on to my "bullets" for so long :) |
I love this thread. Love to pick up tips from BYU 14.
|
I agree with Senator.
This thread brings fantastic insight as to how a football team is actually built. |
Any chance you can post your season schedule? Ill might just have to try and suport the Phoenix FOFC contingent and see if i can check out a game :popcorn:
|
Quote:
Thanks for the comments guys, glad you are enjoying it :) Blade, our game next week is at Horizon which is in your neck of the woods, Wednesday at 6:00 PM. Plus our varsity plays on TV tonight gainst Deer Valley in the Cox game of the week on channel 7 if you have Cox cable. I am leaving for work now, but my next post will be on the pride that comes before the fall......and the humility that will hopefully come after. Yes, we ran into a buzz saw last night and took a 44-20 beating. Yet despite the score the game was pretty much dead even statistically. The difference cam down to the two things that keep coaches up at night. Special teams and turnovers. The lowlight in these areas. One kickoff return for a TD, a second return inside of our 20. Being stopped on downs after we had a first and goal inside the 5 and after driving the length of the field in under 30 seconds before halftime throwing a pick in the end zone they took back 102 yards for the score as time expired in the first half :( That pretty much turned what would have been a neck and neck shootout into a blowout. With the pick and the goaline stand it could have/should have been 21-21 at the half and instead was 28-6. To keep it positive though, it presents a good teaching opportunity, not just on the physical aspects of the game we need to fix, but on mental approach as well, which was not what I wanted to see last night. It worried me from the Bus ride over and nothing during pre game warmups happened to change allay my fears. You can speak to kids from experience about things like this, but unfortunately the best teacher is often experience itself. And class was in session last night. On a high note, out kids did not pack it in when they could of being down at the half and we finished hard. I think the lesson will be learned. I will post more on this as well as stats Friday, since I will be home late after the Varsity game tonight. |
Dola - I know I was focusing on our team, but I definitely don't want to take a thing away from Deer Valley. They played a mistake free game and are very explosive on offense. One of the best Freshmen teams I have coached against over the years and they have a special group this in their freshmen class. Hats off to their players and coaches for a well played game!
|
Quote:
Ok, I think we've waited long enough, no?? :D |
Quote:
I gotta get them transferred to DVD and promise I will :) Once I do I will post a few highlights of the Offense. |
I have some catching up to do.
First off, stats vs Deer Valley. Rushing: Shayne M: 9 - 101 yds, 1 TD Jamal D: 7 - 52 yds Tywon S: 3 - 44 yds, 1 TD Passing: Louis G: 5 - 8 for 109 yds, 1 TD 2 Int Jacob S: 1 - 1 for 3 yds Receiving: Shayne M: 3 - 54 yds, 1 TD Jesss M: 1 - 19 yds Stats through 3 games VS Maryvale: Win 47-0 Rushing 24 - 263 yds, 6 TD Passing 0 - 1 @ Pinnacle: Win 29-8 Rushing 19 - 261 yds, 3 TD Passing 4 - 6 for 28 yds, 1 TD @ Deer Valley: Loss 20-44 Rushing 30 - 254 2 TD Passing 6 - 10 for 112 yds, 1 TD 2 Int Leaders Season to Date: Rushing: Shayne M: 20 - 251 yds, 12.6 YPC, 4 TD Jamal D: 19 - 226 yds, 11.9 YPC, 3 TD Tywon S: 5 - 87 yds, 2 TD 17.4 YPC, 2 TD Passing: Louis G: 9 - 15 for 137 yds, 2 TD, 2 Int Receiving: Shayne M: 5 - 63 yds, 1 TD Jesse M: 3 - 38 yds, 1 TD As you can see the Offense is performing as hoped for as we are averaging just under 260 yds per game on the ground and the passing game has been efficient when needed, though the 2 interceptions against Deer Valley were costly. Shayne and Jamal D are turning out to be a nice 1-2 combo and in an effort to get another home run threat on the field I move Tywon from back Tailback to Wingback. This will prevent teams from keying on our sweep to the strong side. The question is, do we have someone who can pick up for Tywon in the secondary as he will not start at corner wnymore since he is starting on offense now. Our game this past week answered that question and was the 3rd most exciting game I have coached in my 21 years in the sport. We traveled east to play Horizon, which had displayed a very good offense in their first 3 games and a fairly stout defense. For us I had no doubt we would be faster than them and could move the ball, but we had defensive questions of our own going in after the Deer Valley shellacking. I will report on that game tomorrow and will only say this. If you are a fan of the 1980's Don Coryell San Diego Charger style shootout, then this game is for you as the Offenses of both teams were on fire, though it would be a defensive play that would decide the outcome. |
Air Coryell! Joiner, Winslow and the gang!
|
The Copper state shoot out
More like ground chuck :) As mentioned Horizon was a solid team from what I had heard (I couldn't get film on them) but knew they could score from talking to another coach. They also seemed to have a solid defense and ours was still shaky. Speaking of our Defense, it is amazing how the same scheme, with the same types of athletes is so solid one year and then wildly inconsistent the next. Our problems this year stem largely from our linebackers not reacting to and trusting their keys consistently, as well as our secondary showing a propensity to get caught looking into the backfield and giving up the deep ball. We worked extra special teams heading into this game and as we received the opening kickoff it was apparent it was still not enough. Horizon pooched the kickoff and recovered it. Not the way to start when you are looking to get well. They run a similar offense to ours (I call it a bastardized Wing-T) ;) but with a different variety of plays. Still the basics are the trap, sweep and boot and we should have been able to stop them. Not so fast my friend. It looked like we had never seen those plays as they shred us jumping to a quick 7-0 lead. We storm right back with a 7 play 71 yard drive. The TD comes on a 24 yard waggle pass from Louis G to Shayne M covering 24 yards, that sees our split end (Robby M) come back and crush a pursuing linebacker, who never saw him coming. (I love these blocks) We miss the extra point and trail 7-6. All hell then breaks loose as they score on their second drive, recover yet another onside kick when we can't field a bad bounce and before you can blink it is 21-6. They then try ANOTHER onside kick, we recover and complete a short drive, capped by a 25 yd run by Shayne M on strong sweep to make it 21-12 after 1 quarter. The D then comes up with a big play as Willie LB Jesus G gets under a curl route and picks it off. A 60 yard drive is finished by yet another score from Shayne M, this time from 17 yards out on strong sweep and we pull to within 21-18 after missing the 2 pt conversion. We then hold the Huskies on 4th down from just inside our territory. Shayne gains 5 on the sweep and I notice they have widened the DE in their 4-4 scheme to a 9 technique on the strong side and also have their Sam linebacker outside the TE as well. Perfect! I call strong Belly, the strong guard gets a beautiful kick on the DE and Jamal D goes 49 yards barely touched for the score. We again fail on the try fo 2, but now lead 24 - 21. Why I went for 2 here I don't know. We have a good kicker and they were not stopping us at all. One of those decisions I would second guess later. Things are not finished yet though as we then proceed to trade touchdowns with Horizon twice more before the half. Ours come on a 22 yard run by Jamal D and a 72 yd run by Shayne M and when the smoke clears it is 37-34 at halftime for the good guys. Our D coordinator and theirs both adjust nicely at the half and the only scoring in the third is a Horizon safety, which comes after an 86 yard TD run by Shayne is called back for a block in the back......25 yards behind the play!! :banghead: This is a 9 point swing and it will come back to haunt us. Up 37-36 going into the 4th we get another stop on D, then put together a 5 play 69 drive in which we again begin to gash the the Huskies with sweep and belly to both sides. The score comes when Dylan U, in at fullback takes strong Belly 16 yards for the score. This kid would start for us any other year we did not have Jamal D. He runs hard, high knees, good balance and finishes. Jamal has anything but perfect technique, but he is fast, explosive and strong as hell and can go house at anytime. You will also never see him brought down by one tackler....ever. Now up 44-36 we need one more stop. It appears we have it as they face a 4th and 9 at midfield and drop back to punt. Their QB is also the punter so we stay in normal defense. Everyone knows the fake is coming as their QB gets the snap, pulls up and throws a 40 yard strike down the sideline. Our corner is step for step with the Horizon receiver, who it appears pushes off and makes a very nice catch. The play happens on their sideline and is close, so I don't expect the call and don't get it. These are the breaks and I never blame a game on a call because it evens out over time and you never let a call decide a game. So, we need to deal with it and play D. Alas we don't, they score, go for 2, we have the QB sacked, he escapes and hits his receiver in the corner!!! 44-44 with just a little under 3 minutes left.....Perfect, just enough time to score. These are the moments I love. Not so fast again my friend. We get a holding call and are stuck with 3rd and 12. I have one bullet left in the chamber. 209 sleeper is a variation of our weakside boot pass off of strong sweep action. Everything is the same, except here the Tailback (Shayne) instead of sitting down to block the edge on the strongside after the fake, keeps running on a wheel route. The QB starts to roll weak, pulls up and throws it back to the TB. It worked to perfection against Deer Valley and sure enough it is wide open as Louis G plants to throw back to Shayne......................................and slips! The groan from the stands is audible. It was a sure first down and Shayne had to make only 1 player miss to score, not a difficult task for him. We are forced to punt and they quickly go to work, driving to our 16 yard line where it is 3rd down, with 16.7 seconds left. They throw a fade and Shayne M (Now in at corner with the game on the line) makes a great play to rip the ball loose. 4th down 11.2 seconds left. They try the same play to the other side and Tywon S knocks it down to give us one shot with 5.6 seconds remaining. I go with Flood pass at first, but they have their Linebackers 15 yards back and their secondary 30. We take a timeout and go with strong Belly. There is no way we will get a deep ball completed and I can't risk a pick 6 so this is the safe call. Plus if Jamal D gets into the open field anything can happen. Well he goes 41 yards, trys to split the last two Horizon defenders and they manage to trip him up...game over.. 44-44 tie! A great game, in which we did not play good Defense or special teams again, but that falls in us as coaches. We will do what it takes to fix it. As tough a game as it was as a coach, I am sure it was a blast to watch. My first tie as a coach since 1996 (Yes I remember) It is an exhausting game and we start discussing everything that needs to be fixed that night. Our style of play is getting the lead, getting a few stops and then grinding you down with the run game. Shootouts will not get it done for us. Game Stats Rushing Jamal D: 14 - 177 yds, 2 TD Shayne M: 13 - 164 yds, 3 TD Dylan U: 2 -24 yds, 1 TD Passing Louis G: 4 - 6 for 65 yds, 1 TD Zach R: 1 - 1 for 26 yds. (This came on our version of flea flicker, sweet play) Receiving Dylan U: 2 -40 yds Shayne M: 2 - 37 yds, 1 TD Jamal D: 1 - 14 yds All told we ran 36 times for 403 yards!!! Almost 500 yards of offense and we tied...again a fun game to watch I am sure.....But, I am also sure I have a new ulcer :) Stats through 4 games Season record: 2-1-1 overall, 0-0 in region VS Maryvale: Win 47-0 Rushing 24 - 263 yds, 6 TD Passing 0 - 1 @ Pinnacle: Win 29-8 Rushing 19 - 261 yds, 3 TD Passing 4 - 6 for 28 yds, 1 TD @ Deer Valley: Loss 20-44 Rushing 30 - 254 yds, 2 TD Passing 6 - 10 for 112 yds, 1 TD 2 Int @ Horizon: Tie 44-44 Rushing 36 - 403 yds, 6 TD Passing 5 - 7 for 91 yds, 1 TD Leaders Season to Date: Rushing: Shayne M: 33 - 415 yds, 12.6 YPC, 7 TD Jamal D: 33 - 403 yds, 12.2 YPC, 5 TD Tywon S: 8 - 102 yds, 2 TD 12.8 YPC, 2 TD Team: 110 - 1181 yds, 10.7 YPC, 17 TD Passing: Louis G: 13 - 21 for 202 yds, 3 TD, 2 Int Team: 15 - 24 for 231 yds, 3 TD, 2 Int Receiving: Shayne M: 7 - 100 yds, 14.3 YPC, 2 TD Jesse M: 3 - 38 yds, 12.7 YPC, 1 TD Dylan U: 2 - 40 yds, 20.0 YPC Team: 15 - 231 yds, 15.4 YPC, 3 TD Region opened this past Wednesday against our arch rival Tolleson. I will post that game after I finish stats and will also discuss our approach to shoring up defense and special teams......I will at least say this. I didn't hatch any new Ulcers this week :) |
I want this on FILM!
|
OK, as I strive to catch up, before I post last Wednesdays game recap between us and our arch rival Tolleson in "The war for the west side" I will go over some things we needed to get fixed before the game.
Special Teams - This is something we take seriously and our shortcomings here the past 2 games are baffling. Our normal routine is 10 minutes on kickoff and 10 minutes on kickoff return on Saturday. 10 minutes on punt and 10 minutes on punt return Monday. A 25 minute walk through on all special teams Tuesday. Film critique on Thursday after the game and installation/adjustments to any specific areas on Friday in preparation for our next game. Punt (We have only had to punt 3 times all year) and punt return have been good. Kickoff return is what is killing us so we spent 20 full minutes on it last Saturday, including drilling numerous onside and pooch kicks at the return team, reiterating the proper technique for fielding bouncing kicks and also reminding players in the first or second line to fair catch pooch kicks. Our usual 10 minutes were spent on returns and then it was on to..... Defense - 88 points in two games is unacceptable. Last year our Freshman gave only 87 points over the entire 9 game season enroute to an 8-1 record. First the areas that are hurting us by position. D-Line: Trouble generating a pass rush with our front 4 (This is huge) and the inability to work off of blocks effectively to control our assigned gaps. We are also not getting enough upfield push to consistently disprupt running lanes. Our line seems content to stand at a stalement and hand fight with the other teams linemen. This is not what we want from the front so it will be a focus dusing individual Defense periods. LBers: Our inside backers are not scraping effectively, particularly the Mike LB position, which opens up cutback lanes and creates seams. Our scheme is predicated on precise pursuit angles from our linebackers and it has to happen everytime. Some of it is caused by not reading their keys correctly, I.E staring into the backfield looking for the ball and not reacting to what their keys for the week are telling them. This is especially frustrating against teams that run the I formation as it is the easiest Offense in Football to key IMO. We also need to do a better job maintaining the edge. Secondary: Short and sweet....we play a base cover 3.....Get your eyes out of the backfield, stay on top of the receiver(s) in your zone and understand we do not want you tackling running backs for no gain, we have 8 other players to do that and our DB's are responsible for secondary run support. Changes: To improve the D-Line we move Jesse M from starting TE to starting DE. He gives us a big strong body with more athleticism here. This is really important in our scheme as the DE plays a 7 technique and has to able to get across the TE's face on outside runs. We move Cody R from DE to DT where he is better suited for playing the 3 technique. We elevate Jonathon A to starting NG and also start working our FB Jamal D there. At the moment he plays no Defense and the purpose of this is to use him in passing situations only to shoot the weakside A gap and hopefully create havoc for opposing QB's. Chuks A moves to starting Sam with Antonio A taking over as the starting TE. We also bring Sonny G from the secondary to Rover (Our weakside LBer). He is undersized but brings it and has heart to spare. He was buried on the depth chart in the secondary and was playing scout team LBer the past 2 weeks and caught our attention with his tenacity. He is the epitome of the type of kid I really like. Size be damned he just keeps working, has a great attitude and found a niche on the scout team which forced us to take notice. Heading into the Tolleson game he is now our #2 Rover, which means he will see time on the field. Tackling has been particularly appalling, even though we work the hell out of technique. So after we were done with special teams Saturday we spend 30 minutes on tackling stations, rotating groups of 3 every 10 minutes. I usually work cutback drills here, focusing on staying on the inside hip of the ball carrier and reacting when he selects one of three holes so the defender does not over run the tackle. This time however I go back to my youth Football days, grab hand shields and stepover bags and break out the splatter drill. I have never used this at the High School level, but we need to work technique and aggressiveness at game speed and this is the best way to do it without getting anyone banged up or having kids be tentative. The upside is the Kids loved the drill and we had a lot of fun with it, so I kept it in yesterdays practice as well. We also spend 30 minutes each on individual Defense (Footwork, pursuit angles and keys) group Defense (7 on 7 and coverage adjustments for the LBers and Secondary while the D-line worked pass rush and containment) and 30 minutes on Team Defense, getting a lot of reps for our 1st and second string defense against our scout Offense running Tollesons plays. This basically took up our entire 2 and 1/2 hour practice, no offense at all :eek: I am fine with this however as I recognize our Offense is not broken and we will be ready with our normal Monday routine and Tuesday walkthrough. On a down note however, our starting QB Louis G hurt his neck and it went right up to game time as to whether he would play against Tolleson. He was cleared but I still started Jacob S at QB and stuck with him for the first quarter since Louis had not practiced. Next up "The war for the west side" VS Tolleson. They have their best Freshmen team in several years and it would be a grueling, physical game against our arch rivals...... Quote:
I burned this film :) I will definitely get some clips up when I get a moment |
War of the West
This will be the 6th year since the renewal of the Westview - Tolleson rivalry. They were both originally 4A schools, then Westview went to 5A and Tolleson joined us 6 years ago. Since the time of renewal we hold a 14-1 advantage between all three levels, though there have been a few close games, our current edge is fairly decisive. Still this is a neighborhood rivalry (The schools are 5-6 miles apart) and a lot of the kids know each other socially. At each level if we lose all but one game every year, this is the one we better win. Us and the JV play them this week, the varsity ends the regular Season against them.
This is their best incoming group in a few years. They have a stud back, who probably carried the rock nearly 30 times against us, as well as some big linemen. Our advantage is our depth and the fact that we have as good a 1-2 punch on offense in Shayne and Jamal D as you will find at the freshmen level. It will be a war of attrition with two attacks that are heavily biased towards the running game. We prepared for their traditional I (Traditional, near and far) offense, but they had some surprises for us. They came out in their first series and mixed in some Single Wing, direct snapping to their stud TB as well as some unbalanced Wishbone. It caught us off guard and they moved inside our 40, where we stopped them on 4th and 1. A solid drive, but our Defense did not break and the kids were flying to the ball. Good start. We take over and Jamal D goes for 18 on weakside Belly, Shayne M goes for 16 on strong sweep and then Tywon S fumbles on weakside sweep and they take over. They then mount a clock chewing drive that goes into the second quarter, scoring on power from the Bone, then picking up the 2 point conversion. We answer with our own clock chewing drive, that covers 88 yards on 12 plays and lasts over 7 minutes, perfect Football in my book :) Shayne M caps the drive going 6 yards on a strong side power, we miss the 2 pt conversion and trail 8-6. They run out the clock and it stands that way at the half....We have only 2 possesions the entire half!! Still I am happy as our D bends, but does not break and gives up no big plays. We need to make some adjustments to offset their Single Wing sweep as we are having a hard time maintaining leverage, but we are pretty solid elsewhere. The kids implemented the adjustments perfectly and we had 4 possesions in the second half, scoring on three of them and taking a knee at their 12 on the 4th possession to end the game. Tolleson was stacking the strong side to take away our sweep and I only called it 5 times, but we still managed to gain 58 yards on it. The nice thing about this offense and having 2 solid weapons like we do is that I don't mind teams selling out to take a certain play away. In this case Tolleson gave us the weakside Belly by alignment and we ran it 10 times for 116 yards. The defense did a much better job at leveraging the perimeter game and Chuks A in particular picked it up a great deal in the second half. Malik T also did a great job reading a screen play and disrupted enough to allow our secondary and linebackers led by James O to make the play for no gain. We also had another big 4th and 1 stop inside our 45, as Jesus G, Dylan U and Jonathon A converged on their Tailback to stop him inches short of the first down. Tywon S also had an interception in the second half that killed a Tolleson drive. We were up 26-8 in the 4th and started making some substitutions before Tolleson could move inside out 40 again. They finally scored to make it 26-14 with just over 3 minutes left. We recovered the onside kick (YEA!!) and then ran out the clock for the win to move to 3-1-1 and more important BEAT TOLLESON. A great effort by our Defense and a fantastic job by the O-line (Ryan F, Joseph O, Josiah B, Mario R, Damien C and Antonio A) in dominating the trenches against a solid Tolleson Defense. Game Stats Rushing Jamal D: 17 - 165 yds, 3 TD Shayne M: 11 - 107 yds, 1 TD Tywon S: 5 - 27 yds Passing Louis G: 2 - 3 for 44 yds Receiving Shayne M: 2 - 44 yds Next up, Sunrise Mountain, who spoiled our Freshmens perfect season last year in a 9-6 upset thriller at our house. I would be lying if I didn't say I was spending a little extra time on this game. :) |
Year to date through 5 games
This brings the diary totally up to date
Stats through 5 games Season record: 3-1-1 overall, 1-0 in region VS Maryvale: Win 47-0 Rushing 24 - 263 yds, 6 TD Passing 0 - 1 @ Pinnacle: Win 29-8 Rushing 19 - 261 yds, 3 TD Passing 4 - 6 for 28 yds, 1 TD @ Deer Valley: Loss 20-44 Rushing 30 - 254 yds, 2 TD Passing 6 - 10 for 112 yds, 1 TD 2 Int @ Horizon: Tie 44-44 Rushing 36 - 403 yds, 6 TD Passing 5 - 7 for 91 yds, 1 TD VS Tolleson: Win 26-14 Rushing 37 - 329 yds, 4 TD Passing 2 - 3 for 44 yds Per Game Averages Rushing: 302.0 Passing: 55.0 Total Offense: 357.0 Leaders Season to Date: Rushing: Jamal D: 50 - 568 yds, 11.4 YPC, 8 TD Shayne M: 44 - 522 yds, 11.9 YPC, 8 TD Tywon S: 13 - 129 yds, 9.9 YPC, 2 TD Team: 147 - 1510 yds, 10.3 YPC, 21 TD Passing: Louis G: 15 - 24 for 246 yds, 3 TD, 2 Int Team: 17 - 27 for 275 yds, 3 TD, 2 Int Receiving: Shayne M: 9 - 144 yds, 16.0 YPC, 2 TD Jesse M: 3 - 38 yds, 12.7 YPC, 1 TD Dylan U: 2 - 40 yds, 20.0 YPC Team: 17 - 275 yds, 16.2 YPC, 3 TD With 4 games to go, it is conceivable that we could have two 1000 yard rushers on the freshmen team this year, which would be pretty neat and a first for me. So far we have been able to maintain a good balance between the two and I don't see that changing as you can't just go all out to take one of the big 2 away, cause the other one can make you pay for it. |
3-1-1, that sounds very familiar. ;)
|
I was fortunate enough to get out the Horizon game, and it was really exciting from a purely spectator standpoint. Both teams made their fair share of big plays, and mistakes, but for freshman they really gave it their all out there. BYU should be proud, they really worked hard for him. :)
|
Quote:
You should have come down and said hi Blade, would have loved to BS with you a bit. Today I received news that our game was moved to tomorrow!! As structured as I like the week to be that does not thrill me. We crammed part of Tuesdays routine (special teams walkthrough) into todays practice and also doubled up and did Team Offense and Team Defense together on adjoining practice fields. One nice thing about having a lot of kids out is we can do this. That said it was not a stellar practice, part of which I contribute to the kids being out on fall break this week. They were definitely not as focused as I would have liked being home and likely thinking about everything but Football all day.....Like I ever did that as a teenager ;) We also got final quarter grades Friday and after tomorrows game 8 players, including 3 starters (Both outside LBers and our QB) will be ineligible until they pull their grades up. If they are close to passing and diligent they may be able to get it done before next weeks game against LaJoya, if not they will miss 1 or more games until the grades are rectified. This really disappoints me as we collect grade checks and hold 2 study halls a week, as well as offering tudoring. Here is hoping it will be a lesson learned and they will all take care of business! I had already decided to move Dylan U to Sam, which shores that position up and we also have Curtis J back at Rover after his Grandmother held him out for 10 days due to grades (Which I totally support) so the Linebacker situation will be OK. At QB it is a different story. I have 4 on the roster, in addition to Louis, one of the backups (Savon) is also ineligible and Jacob hurt his throwing shoulder (he plays a lot at safety) against Tolleson, which potentially leaves only Zach R after this game. I have faith in the kid as all the backups are close to each other and certainly capable of directing our ground and pound attack. I just hate the idea of being down to a single player here if Jacob can not throw and the other two don't get their academics in order. If it looks like we will be down to only one serviceable QB for the LaJoya game I will get Shayne some reps there and if we need to use him will move Tywon back to TB and put in some special plays for Shayne.....Lets just hope it doesn't come to this. |
Well the defensive changes worked well tonight and the kids ran to the ball extremely well. We were probably better prepared for this game than any thus far and with the kids off this week we brought them in early to watch film of Sunrise from earlier in the year one more time.
The good
Not much at this point without watching film. All but I think 4 or 5 kids got into the game and it was a solid team effort. The ugly
|
Game Stats vs Sunrise Mountain
I was not expecting as many yards as we got, but in going over film they stuffed us a few times with there blitzes, but when we hit a crease we went for big yards. All told we set a new season high with 433 yards on the ground with 8 runs over 25 yards! (Our measuring stick for a "big play") Of course to offset this rushing outburst we passed for an eye popping 6 yards. ;) Our total offense of 439 yards is our second highest of the season. Not all is rosy as turnovers plagued us, as we lost the ball on our final 3 possesions of the first half (2 fumbles and 1 Int) in this fashion. (2 of them came inside the Sunrise Mountain 20)
Defensively we were very stout focing 3 and outs on 5 of 8 Sunrise possesions, with Jesus G recording an interception and playing a very solid game at Mike Linebacker. The D coordinator is catching up on the defensive stats and I will post them once he gets them done, but I do know we had 3 sacks and at least 6 tackles for loss. Individually Jamal D was a beast averaging 25.6 yards every time he touched the ball. As I have mentioned before, he is still very raw which is scary! He will be REAL good. Shayne M chipped in with his usual solid effort also topping the 100 mark, despite the fact that Sunrise commited an extra defender outside to stop sweep. They also brought heavy pressure through the A gaps most of the night and because of this I only called Trap one time. Of course this meant they gave us the Belly both strong and weak and we took advantage going for 118 yards on weakside Belly and 102 on the strong side Belly with our Fullbacks (Dylan U and Joseph F also got carries) chewing up 227 yards between them. Game Stats Rushing Jamal D: 7 - 179 yds, 3 TD Shayne M: 9 - 135 yds Tywon S: 4 - 48 yds Dylan U: 2 - 35 yds, 1 TD Passing Louis G: 1 - 4 for 3 yds, 1 Int :( Jacob S: 1 - 1 for 3 yds Receiving Tywon S: 2 - 6 yds We just did not have enough time to pass and I wasn't going to get to worried about it the way we were running the ball. I did put a hot read in at halftime to get either Shayne or Tywon the ball on a pop pass to exploit the rush, but we never needed to call it. The other highlight of course was Jacob S nailing a 35 yd field goal in the 4th. He is the best kicker we have had at the freshman level and it is a huge weapon having a kicker who can consistently put the ball inside the 10. (He also has 5 touchbacks on the year) Season Stats through 6 games Season record: 4-1-1 overall, 2-0 in region VS Maryvale: Win 47-0 Rushing 24 - 263 yds, 6 TD Passing 0 - 1 @ Pinnacle: Win 29-8 Rushing 19 - 261 yds, 3 TD Passing 4 - 6 for 28 yds, 1 TD @ Deer Valley: Loss 20-44 Rushing 30 - 254 yds, 2 TD Passing 6 - 10 for 112 yds, 1 TD 2 Int @ Horizon: Tie 44-44 Rushing 36 - 403 yds, 6 TD Passing 5 - 7 for 91 yds, 1 TD VS Tolleson: Win 26-14 Rushing 37 - 329 yds, 4 TD Passing 2 - 3 for 44 yds @ Sunrise Mountain: Win 31-0 Rushing 30 - 433 yds, 4 TD Passing 2 - 6 for 6 yds, 1 Int Per Game Averages Rushing: 323.8 Passing: 46.8 Total Offense: 370.7 Leaders Season to Date: Rushing: Jamal D: 57 - 747 yds, 13.1 YPC, 11 TD Shayne M: 53 - 657 yds, 12.4 YPC, 8 TD Tywon S: 17 - 177 yds, 10.4 YPC, 2 TD Team: 177 - 1943 yds, 11.0 YPC, 25 TD Passing: Louis G: 16 - 28 for 249 yds, 3 TD, 3 Int Team: 19 - 33 for 281 yds, 3 TD, 3 Int Receiving: Shayne M: 9 - 144 yds, 16.0 YPC, 2 TD Jesse M: 3 - 38 yds, 12.7 YPC, 1 TD Dylan U: 2 - 40 yds, 20.0 YPC Team: 19 - 281 yds, 14.8 YPC, 3 TD And of course special recognition again to the guys up front that make it happen. As much talent as we have in the backfield, they could not put up anywhere near the ridiculous numbers they do without a solid performance from the line. So....Ryan F, Matthew F, Josiah B, Mario R, Damian C and Antonio A.......Great job Rhinos!!!!! Next up LaJoya at our place and with our game being on Tuesday this week we get an extra day to prepare......They run a 3-5-3 Defense, occasionally going to a 3-4 in long yardage situations and they love to bring pressure, blitzing on nearly every play. The longer week is welcome, so we can get the line extra reps in to deal with their scheme. |
I sure hope we manage to be 4-1-1 after Saturday.
|
We have gotten some good work done against the spread option this week. The Lobos line up exclusively in 4 wide, QB under center and a FB. They run both veer and dive option, as well as speed option with no motion from the slots. Their passing game seems to be basically limited to releasing 3-4 on vertical routes and trying to find seams. The will also throw the bubble screen to either the motion back or the FB.
Our main priority the last two practices defensively have been working on the option. Our DE's need to recognize veer quickly, squueze down and tackle the the FB when they run this scheme. We also have a LBer and secondary shift in to place ourselves in better position against both speed and dive. Speed option is easier, DE's to the QB right now, inside LBer's feather the QB to pitch and outside LB'er straight to pitch, with the safety rotating to cover playside seam for option pass. Jesse M has been nails from his DE position reading this and Malik has gotten better, though we need to work some more on his technique. I didn't like the pursuit angles from the backside LB'ers on some plays Saturday and we will look to tighten that up tomorrow. With the pressure their defensive scheme beings we have line calls in to insure we give up as few run throughs as possible. They will be faster than Sunrise so we have get sweep cut up field quickly and look for the cutback as they tend to over pursue. Belly should again be good both ways and Power will be as will as long as we can make the right line calls against pressure. I added our first hot read on Offense and also put in a blitz beater pass for 3rd and mid range situations and both looked good. These are the first new plays I have installed since game 2 and it was painfully clear we needed them after we struggled picking up the blitz in passing situations last week. Hopefully by some miracle our 3 starters can get their grades fixed, if not be this game then at least for the week after when we will definitely need them. In the meantime I have total confidence in Zach R making his first start at QB this week. He was really neck and neck with Jacob S for the #2 position and though he is not a playmaking type, he is very cool and can manage the game nicely, not trying to force anything. That's all we need. |
Final full pad practice tonight before the Game Wednesday. We normally only go full pads twice a week, but the extra day gave us 3 this week and after some focue issues during individual periods and skellies the hitting really picked up during team offense as the scout defense brought it. I like to see this as it makes the Offense work a lot harder since we have the scout team get a little over excited when they make a play. We ended up with a nice 20 minute session and finished with a few reps of Goaline offense, debuting our Elephant package. (Basically just our 3 biggest backs in the backfield) We lose some speed here, but we will always be able to get a yard when needed with this group.
Finished with Defense and I did some triangle reads (Inside and Out) with the Linebackers on option responsibility, then Skellies and finally team Defense. I think we have their scheme dialed in pretty well, put with this past week being a holiday we have been missing key kids at various times. This is a minor concern as it can effect unit chemistry and in a couple of cases we will be starting 2nd and 3rd string guys due toi unexcused absences. I am still not sure who I will start at QB, it is basically a coin flip right now if Louis doesn't get his academics squared away tomorrow. |
The bad news first, our starting QB did not get cleared in time and I called a pass on our first play from scrimmage and it got picked.....That was also the last pass I called the entire game :)
Pretty much all uphill after that. The extra day of prep for them paid off in spades and the kids executed our schemes almost flawlessly. The starters were done at halftime as we raced out to a 42-0 lead. They got a couple of late scores against our 3rd and 4th string kids, but our backups played their starters fairly evenly and put one on them as well and we cruised home with a comfortable win. Our kicker also knocked down a 39 yard FG in the second half :) Final score Westview 51 Lajoya 13 I will post stats and highlights after I break down the film tomorrow or Friday. |
I find it amazing that a run game can be so dominant that a team need not pass at all and can still destroy another team. Congrats on the win.
|
Quote:
We are fortunate to have a very solid line and three stellar backs that prevents a team from cheating and keying too much on one guy. I am behind on stats but I have been extra busy getting ready for our game against Centennial tonight as they are the top program in 5A II right now and defending state champs. Varsity wise we are ranked #2 and they are #1 and both 7-0 going into this Fridays showdown. As for tonight..............A huge win for us 48-30 (It was 42-6 going into the 4th and they kept their starters in and threw the ball on our backups) so it was really not that close. This is the second year in a row we have beaten their freshmen and it bodes real well for the future. Our Offense is really rolling now and we have still only punted 4 times in 8 games. Starting D is now really playing well as a unit and only gave up 6 of their 30 points. I will update the stats from the Lajoya game last week ASAP and get the stats from this game up this weekend. I am really pumped right now and extremely proud of our kids. (We scored 2 TDs on kickoff returns tonight as well.....A big turnaround for special teams!!!) |
Lajoya Stats
Here are the stats from last weeks game against LaJoya.
Drive Summary 1: 1 play 0 yards - Int 2: 3 Plays 37 yards - TD - Dylan U 6 yd run 3: 9 plays 79 yards - TD - Shayne M 14 yd run 4: 3 plays 48 yards - TD - Jamal D 5 yd run 5: 1 play 74 yards - TD - Jamal D 74 yd run 6: 1 play 41 yards - TD - Shayne M 41 yd run 7: 2 plays 12 yards - TD - Tywon S 8 yd run 8: 1 play -2 yards - Halftime 9: 6 plays 20 yards - Fumble 10: 4 plays 25 yards - Fumble 11: 4 plays 7 yards - FG - Jacob S 37 yd FG 12: 1 play 3 yards - Fumble 13: 11 plays 48 yards - TD - Joey F 4 yd run Game Stats Rushing Shayne M: 6 - 131 yds, 2 TD Jamal D: 7 - 99 yds, 2 TD Andrew J: 10 - 60 yds Tywon S: 4 - 43 yds 1 TD Joey F: 7 - 22 yds 1 TD Dylan U: 2 - 18 yds 1 TD Fabian G: 1 - 10 yds Frankie S: 3 - 8 yds Jamal K: 2 - 4 yds Zach R: 1 - 2 yds Oscar C: 2 - -5 yds Passing Zach R: 0 - 1, 1 Int Receiving N/A We got a lot of backups PT in this one as the starters were out at Halftime. In fact our starting backs only accounted for 17 of our 45 rushing attempts in the game, which makes me and their backups very happy. :) We took care of business quick, got everyone in the game and stayed healthy. The four turnovers are a sore spot. Three were by our reserves, but still, they get just as many reps in ball security drills as the starters, so we just need to focus on taking care of the ball. In fairness to them though, 2 of the 3 fumbles came fighting for extra yards, which we stress. You just need to know when it is finally time to go down. All in all we got a convincing win, but taking care of the ball was something we stressed all week going into yesterdays game against Centennial. Season Stats through 7 games Season record: 5-1-1 overall, 3-0 in region VS Maryvale: Win 47-0 Rushing 24 - 263 yds, 6 TD Passing 0 - 1 @ Pinnacle: Win 29-8 Rushing 19 - 261 yds, 3 TD Passing 4 - 6 for 28 yds, 1 TD @ Deer Valley: Loss 20-44 Rushing 30 - 254 yds, 2 TD Passing 6 - 10 for 112 yds, 1 TD 2 Int @ Horizon: Tie 44-44 Rushing 36 - 403 yds, 6 TD Passing 5 - 7 for 91 yds, 1 TD VS Tolleson: Win 26-14 Rushing 37 - 329 yds, 4 TD Passing 2 - 3 for 44 yds @ Sunrise Mountain: Win 31-0 Rushing 30 - 433 yds, 4 TD Passing 2 - 6 for 6 yds, 1 Int VS LaJoya: Win 52-13 Rushing 45 - 392 yds, 7 TD Passing 0 - 1 for 0 yds, 1 Int Per Game Averages Rushing: 333.6 Passing: 40.1 Total Offense: 373.7 Leaders Season to Date: Rushing: Jamal D: 64 - 846 yds, 13.2 YPC, 13 TD Shayne M: 59 - 788 yds, 13.4 YPC, 10 TD Tywon S: 21 - 220 yds, 10.5 YPC, 3 TD Andrew J: 11 - 134 yds, 12.2 YPC, 1 TD Dylan U: 11 - 123 yds, 11.2 YPC, 3 TD Team: 222 - 2335 yds, 10.5 YPC, 32 TD Passing: Louis G: 16 - 28 for 249 yds, 3 TD, 3 Int Team: 19 - 34 for 281 yds, 3 TD, 4 Int Receiving: Shayne M: 9 - 144 yds, 16.0 YPC, 2 TD Jesse M: 3 - 38 yds, 12.7 YPC, 1 TD Dylan U: 2 - 40 yds, 20.0 YPC Team: 19 - 281 yds, 14.8 YPC, 3 TD My goal was to rush for 2500 yards and avg over 8.0 per carry, two goals we will shatter. I haven't done the Centennial stats yet but I am fairly certain we went for 300+ against them, even though 2 of our scores came on kickoff returns. If we are over 300 against Centennial there is a chance we could hit 3000 yards rushing as a team with two 1000 yard rushers. Easily the best running game I have ever coached at the Freshman level. The line has been solid and we are blessed with some explosive backs. |
Centennial Breakdown
Here are the numbers for last Wednesdays 48-30 win over our arch nemesis Centennial and move to 6-1-1 on the season.
Drive Summary 1: 9 plays 66 yards - TD - Dylan U 6 yd run 2: 3 plays 6 yards - Punt (Only our 5th of the year) 3: 3 plays 36 yards - TD - Tywon S 27 yd run (The kids executed weakside counter to perfection) 4: 2 plays 52 yards - TD - Jamal D 52 yd run 5: Special Teams TD - Guillermo N 69 yd kickoff return 6: 2 plays 10 yards - Int (ugh) They tired a hail mary after this as it was nearly halftime, they made the catch, but Anthony R made a great play stripping their receiver and we recovered at our 5, I then took a knee to end the half. We were up 28 - 6 at this point. 7: Special Teams TD - Guillermo N 82 yd kickoff return (A great way to open the second half and this really had to be a Dagger. G-man starts at corner and is our top kickoff and punt returner as well. He has an amazing burst when he sees a seam on returns. His 2nd and 3rd returns for touchdowns on the season in this game. 8: 13 plays 80 yards - TD - Shayne M 15 yd run (Big plays are nice, but I do have a soft spot for these kinds of drives. I will give Centennial credit, they were still bringing it and made us earn this one. This eats up over 8 minutes and allows us to take a 42-6 lead into the 4th) Heading into the 4th we have all the starters out now on both sides of the ball. 9: 2 plays 15 yards - Fumble (Ugh again!) 10: 6 plays 13 yards - Turnover on downs (At this point I figured they would start playing backups, but they did not and came back out throwing, after they scored their third quick TD and 2 pt conversion on our backups (they kept trying onside kicks as well after every score and got one of them) I got a little nervous/annoyed and put the starting offense back in as it was now 42-30 with about a minute and a half left. I was not crazy about doing this, but stranger things have happened and it would be really foolish to lose a game on some string of miracles where we lead 42-6 going into the 4th quarter. 11: 3 plays 48 yards - TD - Shayne M 7 yd run That put the game on ice and gave our frosh our second straight win over the perennial 5A II title contenders (The Coyotes have made 3 straight trips to the 5A II title game and won 2) Hopefully this bodes well for unseating them in the future. Game Stats Rushing Jamal D: 10 - 112 yds, 1 TD Tywon S: 6 - 79 yds, 1 TD Shayne M: 10 - 74 yds, 2 TDs (They played to take our strongside sweep away, which allowed us to have success on the weakside with Tywon.) Passing Louis G: 2 - 5 for 16 yds, 1 Int Receiving Shayne M: 1 - 8 yds Dylan U: 1 - 8 yds Other Knight news: Our JV moved to 8-0 Thursday coming back from a 35-14 halftime deficit to beat Centennial 39-35. On Friday in a matchup of the two top ranked teams in 5A II it was a defensive battle and unfortunately our varsity fell to 7-1 losing 14-0 to #1 ranked Centennial. We got inside their 30 three times and couldn't put any points on the board, but we know now we can play with them and will hopefully get a rematch in the State title game. They are a solid team (ranked #7 in the West by USA today and just outside the top 25 nationally) We should still enter the playoffs as a #2 or #3 seed if we win our last two (We will be definitive favorites in both) and that would line us up for another shot at them in the title game if we both take care of business. |
Year to date stats
Season Stats through 8 games
Season record: 6-1-1 overall, 4-0 in region VS Maryvale: Win 47-0 Rushing 24 - 263 yds, 6 TD Passing 0 - 1 @ Pinnacle: Win 29-8 Rushing 19 - 261 yds, 3 TD Passing 4 - 6 for 28 yds, 1 TD @ Deer Valley: Loss 20-44 Rushing 30 - 254 yds, 2 TD Passing 6 - 10 for 112 yds, 1 TD 2 Int @ Horizon: Tie 44-44 Rushing 36 - 403 yds, 6 TD Passing 5 - 7 for 91 yds, 1 TD VS Tolleson: Win 26-14 Rushing 37 - 329 yds, 4 TD Passing 2 - 3 for 44 yds @ Sunrise Mountain: Win 31-0 Rushing 30 - 433 yds, 4 TD Passing 2 - 6 for 6 yds, 1 Int VS LaJoya: Win 52-13 Rushing 45 - 392 yds, 7 TD Passing 0 - 1 for 0 yds, 1 Int VS Centennial: Win 48-30 Rushing 39 - 313 yds, 5 TD Passing 2 - 5 for 16 yds, 1 Int Per Game Averages Rushing: 331.0 Passing: 37.1 Total Offense: 368.1 Leaders Season to Date: Rushing: Jamal D: 74 - 958 yds, 12.9 YPC, 14 TD Shayne M: 69 - 862 yds, 12.5 YPC, 12 TD Tywon S: 27 - 299 yds, 11.1 YPC, 4 TD Andrew J: 12 - 146 yds, 12.2 YPC, 1 TD Dylan U: 16 - 143 yds, 8.9 YPC, 4 TD Team: 261 - 2647 yds, 10.1 YPC, 37 TD Passing: Louis G: 18 - 33 for 265 yds, 3 TD, 4 Int Team: 21 - 39 for 297 yds, 3 TD, 5 Int Receiving: Shayne M: 10 - 152 yds, 15.2 YPC, 2 TD Jesse M: 3 - 38 yds, 12.7 YPC, 1 TD Dylan U: 3 - 48 yds, 16.0 YPC Team: 21 - 297 yds, 14.1 YPC, 3 TD Going into our final game we need 353 yards to hit 3000 for the year. It is conceivable we can do it. Regardless, we will set a record for rushing yards at the Freshman level for the school, which is a testament to the big boys up front and our backs both. One down note here is that Damian C, our starting strong tackle suffered a concussion against Centennial and will miss the final game. Adam C, who is a solid technician, but not as physical will start in his place and will do just fine. Code R (Our starting DT) will also likely see some reps here. Andrew J sprained his ankle on his only carry against Centennial and is doubtful. He is a backup at both TB and CB, but generally gets reps at one or both positions every game. He is also a fierce special teams player and we will miss him there. Individually Jamal D should easily break 1,000 yards in our finale and Shayne, needing 138 yards also has a solid chance. |
Final pre-game walkthrough of the season tonight. We kept it fairly loose and had some fun, though not at the expense of making sure our rules were ingrained. We close against Ironwood tomorrow and they are predominately an I Pro team and run a lot of option (both dive and veer) They have a huge fullback and a fairly mobile QB and these two are the two we have to stop. We have more team speed and they don't appear to have any big play guys, but they can grind out long grueling drives with that Fullback. We will need to get them in long yardage situations and force the pass.
Defensively they run a reduced 5-2 and don't blitz much. I will stay with my usual plan and probe multiple points of attack in my script and attack the favorable matchups from there. Our strongside trap should be golden against this Defense, but it has not looked good in practice. This is probably due to the fact we have seen a lot of even fronts and the kids aren't quite hitting the angles. We also haven't run it much the last three games since we have played heavy blitz teams. We have two starters out OT Damian C (concussion) and Rover James O (Academics- 3rd game out) Apart from that we are healthy and ready to roll. The season has once again flown by in the blink of an eye. Here's to hoping we close it out in style, which would leave us undefeated in region and give our freshmen the "unofficial" region title. :) |
We closed out the year with a workman like 35-8 win over Ironwood. They played a good physical game against us, in the end our team speed made a difference on both sides of the ball. Jamal D did not have a great night amd it will actually be close in terms of whether he got 1000 yards on the season. Shayne M broke two long runs and should hit 1000 comfortably. Our biggest plays tonight came from misdirection, counter 6 and counter 7 (6 is strongside, 7 is quickside) as both Shayne and Tywon broke long TD runs. Our other scores came on 66 Gap (Strong side power) with Shayne scoring and two QB sneaks by Louis G. Starting D played real well and did not allow any points. Our 3 man rotation at inside LB'er (Jesus G, Frankie S and Joey K) did a great job containing their big FB) and we ran to the ball real well as a team maintaining outside leverage effectively with our OLB'er and Ends (Dylan U, Josh K, Sonny G at OLB stood out and Malik T looked invigorated at Stud End)
We were able to get everyone in the game again, which is especially cool since it was the last game of the Season. Really proud of how the Kids finished as we ran the table on region play to finish on top of the heap. I will update the stats after we watch films Friday, it will be close but we may hit 3000 yards rushing as a team for the year. :D Oh yeah, I also mentioned in the preview that they did not really blitz on the film I watched, well as usual that changed against us as teams love to blitz A gaps and bring edge pressure against the Wing-T. This was one of the reasons Jamal was not overly effective and also why we had to punt......gulp....twice!!! ;) I hate punting, LOL. I am pretty sure they got film on us too, probably from Centennial, as they did as good as you can do taking away multiple points of attack, but again you have to give up somethingm which accounts for the big night with the counters. We had receivers open as well and when we protected we were able to throw......Nothing crazy, I still kept it under 10. And the Trap was not good due to the way they schemed us, I called it only once cause it was on the script and that was it. |
Congrats on a great season, sad to see it end already. It 'll be nice to see the stats.
Thanks for doing this dynasty, I really learned a lot by taking a sneak peak behind the scenes. Hope you do it again next year! |
Quote:
Thanks Froggie, glad you enjoyed it, I had fun doing it. I was really torn on the content. I wanted to go even more behind the scenes, but we are talking about 14-15 kids here and I just didn't feel right putting too much out there. Better to err on the side of caution IMO. I would never want to put anything out that cast negative light on any kid or gave too much personal information about them. Believe me, I even went back and forth a lot on whether to use first names or numbers. I also held back on scouting reports as well. Call me paranoid, but you never know if a coach from a team we play might stumble upon my game plan for them in here, lol. I know the odds are long, but again, all coaches are paranoid to a degree. I will probably do it again next year. I would also really like to post updates on this class as they progress to JV and Varsity if there is interest in that. I think anywhere from 4-7 of this group will make varsity next year and likely see playing time. |
Great season and congrats!!!! I, too, enjoyed this dynasty and look forward to next season.
One request, give us an update on how any of your kids do on the varsity squad next season and beyond...if you have time, of course. |
Quote:
Mark me down as being a little more cautious next year. I'm definitely a little more paranoid. |
Quote:
I've struggled with this same issue. I've used initials and first names and even thought about doing pseudonyms at one point. I've gone with first names and will go in depth about the kids because my location is ambiguous (I do use abbreviations for the cities/teams we play). I hope that's the right balance. |
Ironwood Breakdown
Finally got around to breaking down the film on our final game as mentioned going in we had a chance for two 1000 yd rushers and a 3000 yard rushing season as a team, both of which would be Freshman firsts. As I thought in my cursory game summary it was going to be close for Jamal D as they did a great job taking away our inside running game and close it was.....real close.
Not only were counters big but our strongside power was money as well. When they started to blitz our A and B gaps I called the linemen over and went to a gap scheme on this play, which enabled us to pick up the run through LB'ers and gain crease off tackle, which also contributed to a big day for Shayne M, who absolutely went off averaging 26.1 yds a carry for the game. Drive Summary 1: 7 plays 18 yards - Punt Not a great start as a sack on 3rd down results in a 10 yard loss and a first drive punt. (They started blitzing after we got one first down, which pretty much set the tone for the rest of the night) 2: 2 plays 70 yards - TD - Shayne M 66 yd run I Let the lineman know I would be calling the gap scheme on powers and we went over the defensive alignment on the white board between series. The kids executed perfectly and the result was Shaynes first big play of the game. 3: 7 plays 69 yards - TD - Louis G 1 yd run A more methodical drive, highlighted by a 46 yd run by Shayne on the strongside counter. 4: 5 plays 31 yards - Turnover on downs 2 penalties and a sack killed this drive, which started well. 5: 8 plays 45 yards - TD - Louis G 1 yd run Time was winding down in the first half and I called passes on 5 of 8 plays....blasphemy :) The big hitters were Tywon S going for 22 yds on weakside counter, followed immediately by Louis hitting Shayne on a throwback off of boot action for 22 more to get it to the 1 yd line. We scored with under 10 seconds left in the half for a 21 - 0 lead. 6: 3 plays 2 yards - Punt Ugh 7: 4 plays 60 yards - TD - Tywon S 30 yd run Weakside counter for the score after 2 strongside powers and a FB toss to Jamal get us the first 30 yds of the drive. 8: 3 plays 79 yards - TD - Shayne M 67 yd run Another homerun from Shayne, this one on strongside counter, as he went the distance virtually untouched, great up front blocking it, as well as our backs selling flow to the weak side. Up 35-0 now and I pull the starters. 9: 4 plays 19 yards - Fumble Nerves as one of our backup TB's just drops the handoff 10: 1 play -5 yards - Fumble It really bothers me when we get sloppy late in a game we have won, even if it is the backups in. They blitzed both A gaps here and got the QB before he could secure the handoff. Actually, it was also a bad play call by me. I called sweep and should have just stayed with power and this wouldn't have happened. (They finally score after this, then got an onside kick...ugh again, but we held them) 11: Take a knee to run out the clock for the 35-8 win! Game Stats Rushing Shayne M: 8 - 209 yds, 2 TD Tywon S: 5 - 83 yds, 1 TD Jamal D: 10 - 45 yds Dylan U: 2 - 19 yds Passing Louis G: 3 - 7 for 32 yds Shayne M: 1 - 1 for 12 yds (TB pass :) ) Receiving Shayne M: 2 - 23 yds Tywon S: 1 - 12 yds Joey K: 1 - 9 yds In addition to Shayne's huge day, Tywon came through big for the second game in a row getting well over half his yards on the weakside counter. Like I said, it was real close for Jamal, but he eclipsed the 1000 yd mark by 3 yards. Hats off to Ironwood, they were the only team that really contained him, but of course our TB and WB ran wild. We also made 3000 as a team by 2 yards which is a testament to our line, who did an awesome job clearing the way for our talented stable of backs. I will post the final Season stats tomorrow and later on some thoughts. Eventually I will get some highlight clips up when I have a bit more time. Our varsity finished the regular season tonight at 9-1 and we now enter the playoffs as the #2 seed in 5A II based on early projections, we will know for sure in the morning when all the power points are verified. Freshmen finish 7-1-1 and the JV 9-0 (Great job guys!!! This group is 17-1 overall in their first two years as Knights. In addition our overall program record for the regular season this year was 25-2-1, the best ever at Westview, so the future looks bright) |
End of Season Stats
Season record: 7-1-1 overall, 5-0 in region (1st place) VS Maryvale: Win 47-0 Rushing 24 - 263 yds, 6 TD Passing 0 - 1 @ Pinnacle: Win 29-8 Rushing 19 - 261 yds, 3 TD Passing 4 - 6 for 28 yds, 1 TD @ Deer Valley: Loss 20-44 Rushing 30 - 254 yds, 2 TD Passing 6 - 10 for 112 yds, 1 TD 2 Int @ Horizon: Tie 44-44 Rushing 36 - 403 yds, 6 TD Passing 5 - 7 for 91 yds, 1 TD VS Tolleson: Win 26-14 Rushing 37 - 329 yds, 4 TD Passing 2 - 3 for 44 yds @ Sunrise Mountain: Win 31-0 Rushing 30 - 433 yds, 4 TD Passing 2 - 6 for 6 yds, 1 Int VS LaJoya: Win 52-13 Rushing 45 - 392 yds, 7 TD Passing 0 - 1 for 0 yds, 1 Int VS Centennial: Win 48-30 Rushing 39 - 313 yds, 5 TD Passing 2 - 5 for 16 yds, 1 Int @ Ironwood: Win 35-8 Rushing 36 - 344 yds, 5 TD Passing 4 - 8 for 44 yds Per Game Averages Rushing: 332.4 Passing: 37.9 Total Offense: 370.3 Points scored 332 (36.9 per game) Points allowed 161 (17.9 per game) Final Season Leaders: Rushing: Shayne M: 77 - 1072 yds, 13.9 YPC, 14 TD Jamal D: 84 - 1003 yds, 11.9 YPC, 14 TD Tywon S: 32 - 382 yds, 11.9 YPC, 5 TD Dylan U: 20 - 162 yds, 8.1 YPC, 4 TD Andrew J: 12 - 146 yds, 12.2 YPC, 1 TD Team: 297 - 3002 yds, 10.1 YPC, 42 TD Passing: Louis G: 21 - 40 for 297 yds, 3 TD, 4 Int Team: 25 - 47 for 341 yds, 3 TD, 5 Int Receiving: Shayne M: 12 - 175 yds, 14.6 YPC, 2 TD Dylan U: 3 - 48 yds, 16.0 YPC Jesse M: 3 - 38 yds, 12.7 YPC, 1 TD Tywon S: 3 - 18 yds Team: 25 - 341 yds, 13.6 YPC, 3 TD Tidbits A great season offensively and we had some moments on Defense, though the back to back 44 point blood lettings were a bit disappointing. One thing I will say is that we improved on both sides of the ball consistently as the year went on, especially on defense. Over the last 6 games if you take away the garbage time points when we had games won, our starters only allowed a total of 20 points, which is awesome. I wish we had made defense more of a focus early on and recognized some of the changes we made after the Tolleson game earlier. Hindsight is 20/20 though and there has yet to be a season I have coached where I haven't had at least a couple of things I wished I had done differently. That is the beauty of coaching this sport though, no matter how long you do it, there is never a lack of challenge and you can never learn enough......about your team and yourself. Offensively this is probably the most explosive group I have coached and I would put our running game against any in the state at the freshmen level. Hopefully that doesn't come off as arrogant, because I don't mean to be at all. I just think the kids worked that well together as a unit.....and it is all them. Calling the plays for this group was easy once I saw what the Defenses were going to do, we talked on the sideline, made the necessary adjustments and the kids executed. I have had better individuals at about every position than I had this year, but never the depth and consistency. I put the Defense in this same category, no world class individuals, but a solid unit that performed well together once we got them all in the right place and they got comfortable in our system. It was the first time that we have had no regular two way starters as well, which also speaks well for our depth and the future.....You truly succeed as a team and this group of kids were that for the most part. (Minus the usual freshman "Can I score one more TD Coach?" stuff....they will learn, lol) A couple more things offensively. We always line up strong right unless I make a flip call and our even number plays always go to the strong side. Example - Ace over 58 = Strongside sweep to the TB (going to the right) Wing flip 58 = same play, but to the left now as the line and backs flip. I called flip once the entire season because for some reason the kids just couldn't keep it straight. It has never been a problem before, but for some reason this year a couple of the kids just couldn't process it. It bothered me a lot over the first few games, but I finally just let it go and focused on executing in the scope of what we were able to do. In the end I just used other ways to get strength to the left side here and there. Trading the TE and going with double TE's as well. Fortunately it worked out fine in the end and we ran well both weak and strong so teams really couldn't load up either way. The one area not being able to run flip did effect is that I like to run to our boundry a lot for two reasons. One is to keep the other teams coaches from getting a real clear look at what is going on and the other is to give us a better look at things. It also helps hide things like unbalanced and over sets for a bit longer from the other team, if their kids don't pick it up right away and adjust. Also a lot of teams will rotate their coverage or shift their LB'ers to the field side against us in fear of sweep. Sweep works very well to the short side against teams that do this, since the Wing-T sweep by design is a cutback sweep and not a strict outside sweep. In the end I still ran to the boundry more than the field, just did it more to the weakside this year. I also had a slightly smaller playbook than last year utilizing probably 2-4 plays less than I normally do, which is not a big deal as it is more about quality of execution than quantity. I always give the kids what they can execute effectively each year and that's how it fell this year. No knock on the kids at all, as we didn't need anymore in the playbook than we had and they definitely executed it well which is the name of game and I was VERY proud if them in this area. I am not a big trick play guy, but usually have 1-3 special play in the gameplan each week. This can be either a trick play or a variation on one of our base plays. We practiced a few (Hook and Ladder, Reverse 8, 158 special) that I never used and overall I probably called less of these than I ever had...which again, win with the base stuff not trickery. I only called a total of 9 specials all year and three came in the final game. Summary of the "special" plays I used. Reverse 9 - (4 times) 4 - 69 yards. This play starts off like strong side sweep to the TB, the guards reverse pull and come back weakside. The TB hands off to the WB, who follows the guards, with the QB leading as well. This play always went to Tywon who executed it well. 209 Sleeper - (3 times) 2 - 2 for 51 yards + 1 sack for minus 6 yards. Starts off looking like our normal weakside boot, fake the sweep to the TB and start to roll weak. Instead of blocking backside after the fake, the TB continues on a wheel route, the QB pulls up short and throws back to the TB. It was open all 3 times it was called, but Louis slipped in the Horizon game or we likely would have been 3 for 3. 158 TB pass - (1 time) 1 - 1 for 12 yards. Used in the final game. Shayne takes the ball on what looks like our normal strong sweep from an over set (The SE lines up to the TE side) He pulls up and and reads the corner, if the corner comes up to force the run he throws deep to the SE, if the corner bails it will usually mean a quick downhill safety and the WB will be open on a 10 yard out. Flea Flicker - (1 time) 1 -1 for 26 yards. I have a couple variations of this play. In the particular version we ran here I put a backup QB at SE (Zach in this case) and line up in an over set, which gets the defense thinking strongside run. Play starts like our normal strongside sweep, the SE come back and takes a pitch from the TB, which now has teams screaming reverse, meanwhile the FB fakes the trap as normal on strongside sweep, then runs a corner route to the weak side. Zach threw a nice ball to Dylan on this in the Horizon game as the Defense did a decent job covering it. We also worked the traditional Flea Flicker off of our weakside belly, but it never looked smooth enough to run in a game. Overall 8 of 9 specials were successful and if we hit on 75% of these I am happy, so we exceeded out goal here. Great job by the kids!! Didn't mean to ramble as much, lol, I just get going. I have to leave and go help with film breakdown of our first round playoff opponent or I might have kept going. I may have a few more thoughts later and of course eventually some highlights. Thanks to everyone who followed this, it was a lot of fun :D |
Time again for another Knights tale diary as conditioning for incoming Freshman starts next Tuesday. From what I have seen over the summer at weights we will have a pretty solid group again. Not looking as deep or quite as athletic as last years, but still pretty solid, which is good as our first 3 games will be very tough.
Overall we have had over 50 incoming freshman show up for weights and agility training over the summer. Some only a few times, but a good core group that made most of the workouts, which is another good sign. We will probably end up with 80+ kids out for the team when all is said and done. I will start a new thread for this years team, but wanted to update the status of some of last years kids. The following Kids will be on varsity as sophomores and I have listed their projected positions and possible impact. Shayne (TB/CB) - He will be the number 2 TB behind a Junior at this point and will get some carries, as well as play in certain packages along with the starter. Will also probably get some garbage time on D just to get some experience, as well as some possibel special teams time. Dylan (TE/MLB) - He will move from FB to TE and will likely be 3rd string there. He will be a defensive player first and foremost and is listed as the #2 Mike LBer at this time, which means he will get some playing time as the season goes on as we rotate kids and he will be capable as he gets comfortable. Jesus (RG/SLB) - Another of my backup FB's who will change position, moving to guard this year (We like guards in the 180 - 220 range in the Wing-T) as he has put some weight on (about 180 right now and room to grow) Like Dylan he will be a Defense first player and will compete for playing time behind ourn starting Sam (a senior) and also get special teams reps. Ryan (LT/DL) - He will be an Offense first player and is actually competing for the starting left Tackle job right now. He has worked hard and is quite athletic for a big kid. He will down on the depth chart defensively as we try to two platoon in general, but especially with linemen. Guillermo (CB/TB) - Might be our most improved player over the summer and he has really improved his speed. (running a high hand timed 4.5 now) He will start as a backup at CB, but as the season goes on will push for the starting job. He is now the fastest of the sophomore class and will likely get a shot at returning kickoffs as well, which he did quite well for us. Some others that will compete to stay up on varsity are. Jacob (K) competing for the starting job with last years JV kicker, will play JV if he doesn't take the job. Damian (OL/DL) could hang on, but will likely practice with varsity and play JV Cody (OL/DL) same as Damian, he has also worked hard and gotten very strong. We also lost a couple of starters, who I won't name. One I think just got burned out on Football and the other had some issues and won't be eligible to play for us this year. I feel bad for both and we will miss them, but you always deal with this type of thing, just part of the game. |
Game Day - Week 2 2009
I haven't had the time I thought I would to really get this going like last year, but I will catch up at some point with a breakdown of the kids and game by game summaries.
We opened early this year and took a 31-12 victory over Willow Canyon (Where our youngest still goes and plays on the varsity) and two of our other Kids graduated from, which was kind of weird. I will recap this game later, but wanted to kind of touch on what I go through on game day. Our opponent this week s Mountain Ridge, who have been a thorn in my side over the years. I have never been on the winning side as either a freshman or varsity coach in 4 tries against them so I am a little wound up for this game. I was up at 4 this morning to start work and so I would be done early to get into game mode. We have not played them in 3 years and they have changed coaches and since this is their first game I have no idea what to expect. They used to run Wing-T, but now run spread on the Varsity. The current head coach was an assistant under the old regime, so they may still have some Wing-T aspects to their game. Because of this, we prepared for both, working against a Wing-T scout offense and mostly just working to align correctly to spread sets (3X1, No backs and 2X2 wide personel) Running Wing-T all these years it is the hardest Offense to prepare for when it comes to freshmen and I would rather be ready for that and adjust to something different, than vice versa. Our outside Linebackers have good speed and do a pretty good job keeping leverage so I think we are in decent shape on the edge. Against the spread I worry about the passing game since we play a base cover 3 and we would normally work a different defensive scheme against a pure spread team. The problem is without a scouting report or film I had to make a choice and again, would rather be honed in on Wing-T and adjust to the spread if they stay in that. Defensively I they will be in either a reduced 5-2 or a 4-4 (The current head varsity coach was the DC as an assistant and we always saw a 4-4 against their Freshmen then and the reduced against their varsity.) We worked against both and again once we see their base I will make adjustments with the line after our first drive to get dialed into exactly what they are doing. I scripted for a 4-4, but as I always do will vary the points of attack on the first 10 plays to look for mismatches and areas we can exploit in their scheme. We ran the ball well against Willow, especially in the 2nd half when I made a change at FB and threw it fairly well too (not sure since I have not done stats I believe we went 5 for 8 and had a TD) and only had 1 turnover (fumble) The ugly of our opening game was stalling 3 times inside the Willow Canyon 25, due mostly to penalties. We had 15!!! including 4 blockes in the back which brought back a TD and 3 runs over 20 yards. We even work specifically on this type of penalty, telling the kids to never block more than 10 yards behind the Runner for any reason and only hit kids when you can see their eyes, which insures your head will be in front of him. Of our 15 penalties, 12 were mental. (the aformentioned block in the back, false start, offsides and an unsportsmanlike for talking) Mental penalties are a big pet peeve with me as they show lack of discipline and as the game wears on and you tire, a lock of mental toughness as well. We are starting 22 different Kids, so fatigue should not be an issue, but we did extra conditioning just to be sure :) My Game plan was finalized last night and we are pretty healthy after the opener. Despite not having any film or advance info on Ridge, the fact that we have a game under our belts and they don't is a huge advantage, plus we will be at home. We had a great practice Monday, but a very lethargic walk through yesterday, so getting that balance before kickoff today will be crucial. About to leave for the school, will try and add a blog from there. |
Not unexpectedly I didn't have time to post from school, equipment, questions and various other issues.
The good news is after falling behind 6-0 we scored 34 of the next 40 points to take a 34-12 lead into the locker room. After scoring on our first drive of the second half I started to empty the bench and that was pretty much it as we beat Mountain Ridge 40-12. I am pretty sure we were well over 300 yards rushing and also housed a kickoff on beautifully set up wall to our sideline. If I can figure out what I am doing I will post it this weekend. I will also go into detail about our team and post stats from the first 2 games. For now, happy to be 2-0 heading into a tough region matchup with millennium, who has speed galore. I will have film on them though so I will feel much more at ease going into the game. BTW, Ridge did line up in some spread, but ran an offset I most of the game, which was completely unexpected. The good news is we opened against an I team, so the adjustments were easy and the kids locked them up after the first drive. Their second TD came after we muffed a punt and gave them the ball inside our 30. |
Quote:
Okay, I'll bite, please define "reduced 5-2" a little bit for me. Off hand, I don't think I've ever heard that phrase before. |
Quote:
It references the shades on the weak side. In a traditional 5-2 or "Okie" the DT will be in a 4 or 5 technique (lined up head on or outside the Tackle) and the DE will be in a ghost 9 technique (outside shade of where a TE would be) In the reduced look the DT moves to a 3 technique (outside shade of the guard) and the DE moves to the 5 technique outside of the tackle. The purpose of this to keep the guard from having a free release to the LBers or to force big on big blocking with teams that run a lot of weakside iso. They actually came out in a 4-3 monster (Very close to a 4-4) and jumped around up front playing with shades and walking linebackers up, etc. Our kids did a great job adjusting and blocking their rules once we were able to talk to them after our first series. I could tell they had scouted our first game by the way they aligned their kickoff return and the fact that they were keying our FB who scored 3 times against Willow Canyon. They took away trap for the most part, but that left them vulnerable to sweep and power, which they got a heavy dose of. They also chose to sell out against the run, which led to a very efficient passing game. 3 for 3 for 2 touchdowns and 1 2 pt conversion. |
Here are a few clips of our 32-7 win over Millennium this past week as we move to 3-0.
It was not an extremely crisp game offensively, but we were able to sustain drives nonetheless and .Defense played a very good game The clips include: Our first score on weakside power. A couple of nice plays by our Mike Linebacker on back to back plays. A TD pass on 2nd and long after a penalty. A tough TD run by one of our Fullbacks on strongside Belly. (They gave us this play all night by alignment) And finally one of the not so crisp moments, salavaged by a great individual effort by our other Fullback after we miss a block on weakside Belly. |
Grats on the win. seems like your video is still set to private. Can't watch it without accepting a friend request...
FM |
Quote:
Thanks FM Set Vid to public. |
great clip, really loved at the end, the "go, go, go, don't drop the ball" :)
FM |
Quote:
Yeah its awesome listening to the comments the kids make when they are filming :) Our guys were right next to the Millennium students filming, so I got to listen to them both trade verbal jabs all game......Freshmen!! :eek: |
Update on the 2008 crew
As I mentioned last year I thought anywhere between 4-7 kids would play varsity as sophmores. Well currently 7 are up with varsity and it could have been 9.
Shayne M - Back up TB and included in certain packages, scored his first varsity TD in game 2 and has broken off a couple of nice runs. He has a lot of shake!! Dylan U - Moved to TE, where he saw considerable time friday due to the starter being out with a concussion, also gets a series here and there at Mike LB. Jesus G - Moved to Guard and DE, saw a lot of time at DE in Fridays win and will likely continue to be a rotation player there. Cody R - A big surprise, he worked hard in the offseason and is now a rotation player on D-line. His oldest brother was a senior last year and is now playing at Fort Hays State. His other brother is the starting varsity TE. (who was out with the Concussion) Damien C - Not a lot of PT, he is still learning the "speed" of the game. Practices with Varsity, but will play down on JV following weeks he does not get into the game, a lot of upside, Malik T - Same as Damien, he just needs to keep developing, has played down on JV the last 2 games, but will continue to work with the varsity. Guillermo C - Another surprise, he is a special teams player on varsity and had a shot to start at corner, but just hasn't picked up the scheme yet. Ryan F - Started with varsity and was competing for a starting job, but got hurt, then asked to move down to JV, where he will play when he returnds from his injury. Jacob S - Lost the starting Placekicker job, but handles kickoffs as he has the stronger leg and actually booted 2 into the end zone against Highland on Friday. He could take over all kicking duties as his accuracy improves. Jamal D would have been a varsity player as well, but due to personal issues had to attend another school this semester. He is not playing Football and will be back with us in the winter semester and rejoin the Football program as a Junior, |
2009 Knights
Well, now that we are three games in I guess I should introduce this years Freshmen Knights before I get to game recaps. We currently have 72 on the Roster and I will pretty much stick to the two deep in this preview, though you will likely hear other names as the season progresses.
Offense (* = Starter) QB * Jordan M - Not extremely fast and sometimes gets a little too wired (Has been known to puke early in the game :) ) but once he gets settled in he is very accurate and throws really well on the run, with solid technique and a fairly quick release. Will also stand in and take a hit to deliver the ball. Efficient with 4 TD passes 0 picks through 3 games. Justin T - Tall and athletic, he puts a lot of pressure on himself and needs to learn to relax, which will slow the game down for him. I will get him reps as I can to help here and get him comfortable, great upside and he starts at FS for us as well, which will help him. TB * Devonte C - A track kid and one of our two fasted players, he has good vision and above average agility, will also finish a run, which you would not expect from his build. A quiet, coachable kid who gives it 100% at all times. Also a receiving threat. (See 98 Flood in the video below) Freddie E - More of a slasher, he makes one move and gets up in the seem. Sets up his blocks well and has above average speed, another hard worker, who can give Devonte a blow anytime. He also starts on defense. FB * Frankie L - The epitome of a Wing-T fullback, tough, fights for extra yards and will run you over. Does not have blazing speed, but fast enough to pop a big run (See the video below for 36, a 55 yd TD run) gets stronger as the games goes on and plays a lot at Mike LB as well. He loves the game and is a warrior, though I have to get on him for taking a play off here and there. ;) Seivion M - A very tough and talented athlete that would run through a brick wall for you. Has been hampered by a Hip flexor, which has cause me to shut him down in each of the first three games, but when healthy runs with speed and power, hits the hole quick. (He broke the long run on the busted play in the video below) Another who starts on Defense. WB * Rene C - A smaller kid who is deceptively quick and strong, like all our back will finish a run and has good vision as well. In fact with him at WB our weakside sweep is looking as good as it has ever looked IMO, due to his ability to read blocks and attack the seems. Isaac I - A similar style runner the Rene, with a little less speed, but quicker feet. May have the quickest cuts of all our backs and is definitely not shy about lowering his should when hemmed in. Starts at Rover on Defense. TE * Jesse D - A nice frame and a kid who does everything we ask of our TE's, get the down block and get open and catch the ball on strong side boot. Quiet, but very smart, he wont flatback many players, but rarely misses an assignment and that is more important to me in the grand scheme of things. Ardis P - An imposing presence, started at FB, but moved here after our first game. He is a load when at full speed but takes some time to get going. Still getting comfortable here, he also starts on Defense, which is his primary spot. Really soft hands for a big kid. SE * Clifford C - Tall Lanky kid who has good hands and works hard to improve his game, not blazing fast, but runs pretty good routes and can go get a ball. Also a good downfield blocker, which is very important in our scheme. Robert C and Kassious L - Our two starting corners who get some rotation time here as well. Kassious is our deep threat and runs real nice routes, while Robert is a master at the crackback and levels Linebackers despite his small (5'2) frame. Jaquan T and Eric M also see time here and are both solid. O-Line LT * Sergio H - A really nice frame, will occasionally miss his asignments, but when on he can be dominant and make our weakside belly look real nice when run his way. Currently 6'1 and about 175, he could be really good if he works hard in the offseason. Roberto H - Not much drop off here, Roberto has a squatty body and gets good leverage on his blocks, just not as quick off the line as Sergio, but I am still very comfortable running behind him. Has only been hampered by missing a few practices. LG * Matt A - Our smallest lineman, but also our smartest, knows his rules inside and out and that is why he is here. His older brother was the same and started for us a couple of years back no varsity. He will not dominate anybody, but as a lot of our schemes allow him to pull and angle block he is able to get the job done, huge heart! Junior H - A big better physically than Matt, but not quite as technically sound, but he still gets plenty of game time reps. He will often go in in short yardage as he is capable of getting a better straight push. Another position with a solid 2 deep, he also gets some reps at DT. C * Essie W - Started as a Fullback and moved to center (We have a couple every year) and went from 4th string to starter. Good first step and great on his snaps, gets them back quick and follows through. He is another kid who does whatever is asked of him and is a pretty solid anchor on the line. Felix V - A big body, who is very physical off the ball, needs to get quicker on his snaps, but could still start for a lot of teams. I have no issues getting him a series here and there as he can more than hold his own. RG * Jose T - This is a kid who just need to play with consistent confidence as there as times he looks absolutely textbook, but has a tendancy to not finish blocks in space, because he does not want to whiff. When he attacks and runs through his blocks he is very good and seldom misses, so we just need to keep working him on being aggressive and having faith in his ability. Ramon S - One of our bigger guards, he still moves quite well and is probably the most powerful of the top four at the guard spot. as his feet get quicker he will get more field time and still sees action now, especially in short yardage where we need his physicality. RT * Adrian U - Our silent assassin, a very cerebral kid who knows his rules, has good technique and just needs a bit of a mean streak to take it to the next level. Its hard to tell a nice kid to be a dirtball in the trenches, but once this switch clicks he will could destroy people. Also has real good feet for a bigger kid. Samuel V - Our biggest lineman (biggest kid on the team) came out a little late and is just starting to get comfortable, hard to shake when he gets his body on you, we just need to keep working his first step and follow through. Can develop into a powerhouse. Kicker * Rafael V - A soccer kid who only kicks, he is a little inconsistent on extra points right now (some is due to our snaps) but is exceptional at placing the ball into empty space on kickoffs. He provides an opportunity for us to get the ball back on every kickoff with his pooch kicks if the other team is not awake. Others who will see rotation time on Offense Drey T TE (I use him for double tight sets) Isaac T WB (great frame, just needs to be more physical) Jakob R RT (Starts on D, but is another big body, raw but strong) Overview: This group does not have the 1 or 2 standout players (like Shayne M) but is overall a deeper more consistent group than last year IMO, which is actually better as we have many kids who can step up. They are a hard working group on the field for the most part and have good chemistry, which is something else that pays huge dividends when you are in a tough scrap. I think our two deep at line is as good as or better than any freshman group we have had and there is little to no dropoff between our starting backs and their backups, a nice situation to be in if injuries or eligibility issues rear their ugly head. With a 3-0 start we could have another very good season, so long as we keep them humble and focused. I will do the Defense later. |
OK, 5 games in now (5-0) and I am really feeling this could be a special season if we keep them focused. I have stats to do on two more games today, then the summaries will be ready to post.
First, time for the Defense (* = Starter) Stud End * David D - Almost the prototype of what we look for in our weak side end, great genes (Dad is a former MMA fighter and Mom does fitness contests) good frame which a combination of speed and strength that allows him to be a force against both the running game and give us a good weakside pass rush. He does have a bad knee, so we have to limit a lot during practice. Alejandro T - Kid has a motor and is difficult as hell to block, came out late and was giving me fits when playing scout defense, which got him into the rotation. Unfortunately out with a broken wrist now, but should be back in a week or so with a players cast. In his absence Drey T and Sergio H will give David a blow when needed. NT * Esteban G - Wanted to play at MLB, but is shorter and stocky and does not have great lateral movement so we moved him to our 1 technique, where he earned the starting job in short order. Quick off the ball for a bigger kid and will blow you up. I have never seen anyone push him back in tackling drills. Just a real tough kid who is a perfect fit at Nose. Oscar C - Very capable of being the starter and still gets plenty of PT, similar in build to Esteban, but not as explosive off the ball. Still very tough to move and controls the A gap very well. Between the two of them teams have had difficulty running inside trap on us all year. DT * Junior H - Good kid who is a bit of a goofball off the field, but turns it on between the lines. Sometimes too aggresive and leads the time in offsides penalties, :) but when he does make some big plays and is a run stuffer to the strong side. We don't try and tone him down much as I will take his 2-3 tackles for loss per game and give up an offsides here and there. Jakob R - A big kid with pretty good athleticism in his first year of playing. He still needs a lot of technique work and will only continue to get better. When he plays with leverage he borders on being dominant, just has to learn to do so consistently. He gets a lot of reps too as we like to keep out insides guys fresh. DE * Ardis P - From FB to DE, our best move of the season as he has become a terror and as he has gotten in shape has shown a great motor, running down a lot of plays from the backside. He projects to be probably 6'3" and 250 - 260 by the end of his time as a Knight. With his top end speed he can run down all but the quickest of QB's, a nice weapon. Drey T - Can play both spots and is another kid with a motor, who can hold the edge well against finesse teams that want to get outside on his. Not as physical at the POA as Ardis or David, but makes up for that with technique. He gives us a nice three player rotation at the end spot. Sam * Seivion M - He is the epitome of what you want in a player. Quiet, unassumable, coachable, hard worker and a game changer on both sides of the ball. Playing the outside LB on the strong side, he makes it nearly impossible for teams to run outside his way. And all this battling a hip flexor all season, he will be scary at 100% if we ever get him there. Daniel J - Always has a smile on his face and has a great love for the game that allows him to play above his head. Not extremely fast or strong, he just wants it bad and that gets him in the field for me. You can't coach desire and he has it, which allows me to give him a couple of series a half with complete confidence. Mike - * Josh S - After I had to move Frankie to starting FB I was worried about this spot, but Josh stepped up nicely. The kid is fearless and when he reacts correctly to his keys fills his assigned gaps nicely against the run. Will ocassionally overscrape and needs to work on pass coverage but is a very competent run stopper, which you need here. Frankie L - An excellent inside backer and he gets plenty of time here, but his priority is starting FB and since I don't start anyone two ways that makes him #2 at Mike. A ferocious hitter that will literally fold kids in half. Solid against both the run and in coverage. Will - * Freddie E - How many times does your 2nd string Tailback start at an inside LB spot? Tells you all you need to know about him. Gives us great athleticism to the weak side and he can pop too. Another who just loves the game and will leave everything he has on the field, our best LB in pass coverage and goes sideline to sideline well. Trenton Z - A bit undersized, but he is even more fearless than Josh which makes him fun to watch. If I told him to run through a wall I would put my money on him. His only drawback is sticking to his keys and reacting, when he does this he is more than capable, when he doesn't we spend a lot of time talking on the sideline, but again the heart of a Lion. Rover * Isaac I - Our WB combinaton teams up here as well and with similar results. Either Issac or Rene could start here (same as at WB) so I have quite the luxury. Constantly asks questions (a good thing) to make sure he has our gameplan down and plays at 100 MPH all night long. Does a great job playing with discipline and holding down our weakside flank. Not afraid to throw it in there and has a few savage hits this season. Rene C - Carbon copy of the above, with perhaps a little better instinct as a player. He is very solid fundementally and will rarely miss a tackle in drills, practices and I can't recall him missing on yet in a game. The kind of trait you really like in a leverage player. Again either of these two can start here with no dropoff whatsoever. CB * Robert C - A small kid that teams probably see and think they are going to run to his side. It they do get past Seivion, they discover quickly why he is there as he packs probably the best pound for pound wallop on the Defense. Of course we want him to cover first and foremost and despite his size, uses smarts and positioning to do an excellent job covering his third of the field in our 3 deep zone. Devonte C - Our starting TB will also get a couple of series here during the games, he just does what athletes do and you will not run by him. We like to use him in the red zone to lock down receivers man to man. Another kid that will hit you...hard! (I love tough running backs!) FS * Justin T - Our backup QB fits in nicely at safety, where I believe being a QB helps you a ton. Goes hash to hash very well in covering the middle third and has a great break on the ball (2 picks as of this writing) and is just very smooth in the position. Still needs to work on getting our coverage checks called quicker, but is getting better daily at this and has good field awareness after the snap. DaQuan M - Every year we have a team comedian and he is this years, but he is also a very capable player. He started at Rover, but we needed to shore things up here and he was not going to crack the 2 deep at that spot. He is still learning the position but has already shown enough to get into the rotation and play. Another skinny kid that will put a hit on you too. CB * Kassious L - Besides being the only person not named George Takei I have heard say "Oh My" so much, he is another speedy, talented kid who hits much bigger than his size and though sometimes a little too quick to come up on the run, has enough quicks to make up for any mistakes. He is another that came out late, but grabbed our attention quick with his ability as a playmaker. Tyler B - One of our QB's and while not as athletic as Kassious, gets it done with smarts and is always in the right position, once again playing QB gives him an advantage in the secondary IMO as he understands routes and reads very well. Though I am sounding like a broken record, another small kid that packs a nice wallop when he has to come up and make a play. Overview We have a very talented defense and the starters have only given up 3 scores in 5 games (all three coming in our first two games of the season) They will bend a bit on ocassion, but will always come up big when our goaline is threatened and since points, not yards win games thats all I care about. They are also probably the most physical freshman Defense I have ever coached as they put 3-4 kids (usually running backs) out each game for a few plays just from knocking the wind out of them or ringing their bells. They will swarm as well and are a tough group, which I attribute to our frequent scrimmages with the JV team and the fact that they practice against a physical offense. |
| All times are GMT -5. The time now is 11:44 AM. |
Powered by vBulletin Version 3.6.0
Copyright ©2000 - 2025, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.