weather

Well, cold rain/fog mix really sucks ...whether in practice or game situations. Being from the Oregon coast, I always had to contend with those conditions. May times i would be wet and freezing, and if we were luck, we could see the locker room from the practice field.


I do remember one game where we were visiting, thus in white away jerseys, and the fog rolled in, made it really hard for the defense to see us, since we were a split back veer team. Needless to say, we didnt throw after that and special teams was just that ... special.

How does it affect the playcalling and what you can run?

Down here in Texas we just get HOT. Proper hydration the night before and throughout gameday are musts. It doesn't really affect playcalling though.

where rainy/wet conditions tend to hurt passing teams is in the qb's ability or inability to "catch & throw" to execute the quick game, specifically, the bubble screen or hitch screen. this plays (more so bubble) are designed to spread the defense and reduce numbers in the box to aid in run game and limit number of rushers/blitzers. if the qb can't do this in the rain then the run game will be hindered since the defense will quit widening those lb'ers out their on your #2 receivers. now you have 7 in the box and will have tough time in protection as well. the limited protection can make it much harder to throw the vertical or dropback game. we lost a game like this 5 years ago. we were state ranked and racking up tons of points with our spread. were playing a average to below average team. our only true TE was injured as was his backup. we were - at that time - mostly 4 or 5 wide with limited tight end. had it been dry weather we would probably had no protection problem and would have more than likely been able to run the ball as we normally did -- we had a 2700 yard passer and a 1500 yd rusher that year. but, due to unbelievable rain and the worst possible mud field i've ever been on, we couldn't throw the bubble nor spread the defense. not having a te gave us protection problems and limited the run game to almost nothing. we lost 14-0.....they scored on a blocked punt and on a halfback pass. guess we should have called the halfback pass, huh?

Yes, just like a double tight bone team should have a gun package (or something to move the ball through the air) for playing catch-up. Mud sucks if you are an option team too.

There are some gun packages I am toying with for goaline/short yardage/ weather conditions that are real old school. Like a straightened out version of the short punt from Lou Thom Howard. With the backs all at 3-4 yards deep and balanced. Simple things like sweep, counter, power off of that could take the place, but I have not had a chance to run this stuff. Do you think mud and weather would be a fator in that as much? There would be little ball handling at all. Just a catch and run, or a catch and handback. Just thinking outside the proverbial box here. I really respect your opinions on the matter and would love to hear what you have to say about it.

That is basically my thinking on it chuck. The gun snap is at least a little softer than the traditional scoop smush you have to use as a center in the muck. This is always fun to teach when new centers experience mud the first time. Usually, if I have a new center that year we take him over to where the water trees are and practice the scoop under center snap just so he has done it before a game.

The power gun stuff should enable a big wedge, and a numbers game outside for the sweep, as well as a simple downhill counter off of the sweep if it is really messy.

And you are right. Defense is what rules those types of games anyway. Forcing turnovers in the muck would be key.