RB reads on inside zone

Along with what Tiger One said, we teach the same thing. Read the color of he jersey of the defense. Our aiming point is the outside leg of the guard if he is covered and the inside leg of the tackle if the guard is uncovered.

JD

This is how RIGGINS ran it:


RUNNING BACK ("40/50 GUT" — INSIDE ZONE): 1st. step with playside foot, roll, crossover, and aim nose for Tackle's inside hip (if bubble over Grd) or Guard's outside hip (if bubble over Ctr or Tkl). Key the block on the first down lineman outside the Center, and make your cut on THEIR side of the L.O.S. If there is daylight in the B gap — cram the B gap — otherwise, if DLM goes out you cut inside (& vice versa).

Bill always knows how to emphasise things just right, doesn't he? Of course, his on field time with the Redskins coaching staff at actual practices and hearing Riggens himself describe how he ran the play, rubbed off a bit I'm sure. Another tidbit I picked up from him about John Riggens and Terrell Davis both, was the fact that neither one of them liked a lead blocker in front of them! They claimed all he did was get in their way! I don't know how y'all feel about it, but with those guys coming right behind me I WOULDN'T WANT TO BE THE LEAD BLOCKER EITHER!

Coach Easton

Bill,

He would have the H leading in bang motion also on 40/50 lead nose. I put it in in class room this week and will install it on the field tomorrow! We walked through and went full speed in our indoor facility this week and it looked good so far. Tomorrow we shall see with a defense up there how it plays out at this point. We will be in full gear by the end of the month! Tomorrow completes our 17th week of off season training, we are starting to look about 1/10th of the way there at this juncture. I cut everybody but a handful and started from scratch, it's been a long time getting to this point with a lot longer way to go. You know the feeling I'm sure. I saw the 1971 Super Bowl, played in the early Jan of 1972 at the old Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. Dallas played Miami and beat them 24-3. Staubach at QB and Walt Garrison running those guts and off the tackles like a freight train! He put on an awesome display of power running that day I will never forget. Ditka was at TE, he could play Bill! Him and Riggins always will stand out in my mind. But, I saw Otto Graham at QB and Marion Motley at FB before Jim Brown got there too. Buddy, you talk about one tough QB, and Motley was just inhuman! That's when Paul Brown was in his heyday with Dante Lavelli at End, Lou Groza at Tackle and doing all the kicking, etc. Football has evolved sure, but the young guys who never saw any of those games live in the stadiums, will never know what they missed. Thanks for the PARTICULARS above, as always.

JC

Bill,

You see those who were our immediate predecessors, the really great members of the hall of fame, etc. how Football was an absolute life time profession for them? I don't know your feelings on the matter, but I'm sure glad I came up when I did! Discipline was instilled from the first time you ever took the physical to the end of your last game! I'm not one of these who live in the past, by any means, but it has all changed so drastically in our life time. Oh well, time marches on.

Coach Easton

Oneback,

Bud Grant was an amazing athlete in his day. He was drafted by the Minneapolis Lakers and played with them during there championship years before moving to LA. He played football for a couple years in the NFL, but made a great name for himself in CFL playing for the Winnapeg Blue Bombers and winning a few Grey Cups.

That Great Lakes roster, wow talk about men with integrity and leadership. My college coach was Jim LeClair, former ILB for the Bengals and he to spoke very highly of Coach Brown as well.

JD

Bill & JD,

Certainly appreciate your comments! Internal moral decay felled the Roman Empire, and it will be the demise of the greatest country the world has ever known if we let it! The changes in social behaviour and grace are appalling to men our age. My pet peeve in life is with folks who cannot, and will not, be on time for anything!!! Bill, I have seen that quote before that discipline starts with being on time. A few years ago, I was holding a press conference pertaining our moving my football team to another city. ( it was being held in the new city). The Mayor and other local dignataries were invited, and accepted my invitation. I informed the Mayor that he would be treated as the team guest of honor for the press conference, and that he would be introduced and called upon for opening remarks. I also informed him that the TV cameras and radio stations were going to be present and I needed him there at 7:00 PM sharp. He assured me that he would certainly be there at that time. At 7:20 PM he rolled in with out a word of explanation of any kind, and was chagrined that we had started without him! What audacity!
He was a man in his late 30's-early 40's and I thought; No wonder we can't get the kids to be on time when their parents are late to almost everything they do!

Practice time is sacred to me! 2 hours is my limit almost every planning period. But, have long ascribed to the theory that PERFECT PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT, NOT JUST PRACTICE, AND SO TODAY WE WORKED AN EXTRA HOUR BECAUSE OF THE VERY EXAMPLE YOU CITED ABOVE BILL. We DO not leave or go on, until we get it right!

Coach Easton

Speaking of the GREAT Paul Brown (above): What ultimately got him fired in Cleveland (with the Browns) was the time that the OWNER (Art Modell) who liked to ride the team bus to the stadium, wasn't ON TIME, & Paul ordered the bus driver to take off & they left Modell!!!!!

Paul just went over & founded the Bengals!!!!!

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Originally posted by: Coachjd
Tiger One and Oneback,

Kids have changed so much in the 15 years I have been teaching/coaching and it almost makes me sick at times to overhear their conversations just in their everyday living. I am really amazed at how girls talk and act now.

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Now... I don't have nearly half the background in this that Coaches Easton & Mountjoy have (and I mean that VERY respectfully) But I'd like to add my thoughts to this section of the discussion.

Have kids changed? Or has our expectations/society of them changed?

It may seem like semantics, but I really don't think it is. I'm not so sure kids HAVE changed at all basically. Teenagers still try and get away with things, and push boundries - that's what they do, and its a cross cultural phenomenon - part of the developmental stage. As JC said it probably has more to do with society's expectations on them - they're only going to get away with what they are ALLOWED to get away with. Now we can have a a huge debate on who allows them to get away with what - but the way I look at it is that my friends and I were trying to get away with things when we were 16 years old... and the only thing that holds you back is boundries - different societies (and times) have different boundries.

An interesting thing is to look back in the editorial pages in papers. You'll find the same headlines regarding youth you will today; "No respect for authority", "Society in decline" etc... The funny part is that it doesn't matter what culture or era in history you go to, you find the exact same headlines and ideas whether it be Socrates, Pliny, Plato, Da Vinci, Confucius, or Rush Limbaugh. About a year ago I went to a presentation on "at risk" youth and the presenter started with a series of quotes taken out of the editorial column about todays' youth and laziness, lateness, disrespect, dress, etc. Except... some of them were over 2,000 years old, and taken from the 'Golden Age' of various societies. One was actually Plato bemoaning his students for being lazy, unintelligent, and showing no respect for authority - one of the students in question was Aristotle! Or think of how shocked 'the establishment' was at Rock n Roll - alot of people called it the 'Devil's music'... yet now that same music is now 'classic' and 'wholesome'.

I guess what I am trying to say is that "Things Change" (great Tim McGraw song BTW) - no matter what the era they seem to change for the 'worse' for those in the middle of the change.

Now hey... I'm a HS teacher - I am NOT condoning some of the behaviour of our youth, and I teach in an inner city school - so trust me I hear, and see it all. But it all boils down to role models, and it is a up to US to be good role models for ALL of them because ALL 'kids' like to get POSITIVE attention - they may just not know how to go about getting it (this is about 75% of my students) - the simple way is CATCH THEM DOING SOMETHING RIGHT. Many of them get yelled, cussed, or beaten down at home... they don't need that from me. You'd be surprised at the results I get - some of the 'terrors' who disrupt other classes constantly are NO problem in my room.

Lateness is a HUGE issue for us - as is respect - and one we have to work on constantly. We're VERY careful about how we deal with guys who are late - a few years ago I was on a staff and we had a player come in late, and a HC center him out. The player go VERY angry, punched a table and stormed out.

The player had just learned his brother had terminal cancer. He was late because he was on the phone with him.

I remember reading a book on Bear Bryant where he said his boys came from 'good mamas and papas'. How true - its easy to respect discipline when you come from a good home. I often wonder if someone like Lou Holtz, Hayden Fry, or Bo Schembechler would have had as long career in today's 'Win or FIRED" environment - where winning means being #1.

Coach Easton;

Great post!

I think the best thing to remember is that we're coaching people - not football players... people.

Bill, Scott:

We sure seem to all be in one accord on this one, don't we?

JC

I agree with all of this. Here is a thought, is it WE the coaches that have lowered expectations? or is it the parents of these kids we have that have lowered the expectations for their kids?

Bill, JC, have you guys seen a change in how parents respond to and support the coach's desicions over the years? Just in my short 9 year career I have noticed a trend to more and more "my baby can do no wrong " kind of thinking on the parent's part. Where does this even come from? It makes me sick. Especially when I know that the coach's around me are darn good men doing the best they can to make these players into quality young men and citizens. And then I get to meet some of these same parents and it all becomes clear.

We had home visits that dealt with stuff like this. I do think it helped head off some problems because the parents DID sign off on some documents and realized they were doing so. Some parents are just so redneck loser they didn't care about that stuff though. Makes for an interesting season with people like that.

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Originally posted by: Oneback

TWO LAWS

THE LAW OF THE JUNGLE (BY KIPLING)

Now this is the law of the jungle,
as old and as true as the sky.
And the wolf that keeps it shall prosper,
but the wolf that breaks it must die.
As the vine that girdles the tree trunk,
the law runneth forward and back.
The strength of the pack is the wolf,
and the strength of the wolf is the pack!


THE LAW OF ATHLETICS

And this is the law of athletics,
as true as the flight of the ball.
And the player that keeps it will win,
but the player that breaks it must fall.
As the ball and the parts it is made of,
are bound and held fast by the seam,
the strength of the team is the player,
and the strength of the player the team!

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BIll, I like it. The problem is, half the parents can't read at all, or they don't speak English. Makes for an interesting year for sure.