Scripting plays???

John,

I always script the first 15 plays. It is my way of getting established right off the bat what we want to get established quickly, namely my 3 x 2 empty gun. The only time we vary on these if it becomes 3rd and short, etc. and then the QB has complete freedom to call whatever he sees that will get us the needed first down. As soon as we get what we need, we go right back to the script. Just my way .

Coach Easton

Here is what the BRILLIANT Dan Henning says:

FAN Q&A:

I know some teams script the first 10-15 plays of a game. Is that something you do? Wayne, Kannapolis, NC

DAN HENNING: I've heard a lot about that and talked to people who do it, but we don't script the first 15 plays. We have the first play scripted for each situation. The first short yardage. The first goal line play. The first play of the game. The first third-and-10 play. We take each situation and we kind of know which way we're going to go in those instances, but since the situation changes so much, I don't know how you can go down 15 in a row. We set ourselves up to be prepared for what we have seen. As the game changes, we must be able to adjust.

This is the Sid Gillman/Don Coryell/Joe Gibbs/Dick Vermeil/ETC. method: Dan is from THAT school of tought!

Something tells me Coach Mountjoy is not being facetious!

Dan Henning is one of the great minds in the game! Played for Gillman; coached with Parcells, Gibbs (in 2 Super Bowl wins), Shula, etc. Dan Marino says Dan is the BEST QB COACH he ever played for.

I found this on the net recently:

Fan Q&A: Dan Henning, Part I
March 15, 2006

Panthers.com

In your opinion, is it better to use the run to set up the pass or use the pass to set up the run? Jonathan, East Bend, NC

The conventional thinking is that you run to set up the pass, but NFL defenses have gotten to the point where they start out with a predetermination that they aren't going to let you run. So sometimes you have to switch things around and throw out of run formations in order to make them understand that they can't just take the run away, period. Make them understand that they're going to be very vulnerable if they do that. Based on the way that people play against us, we will adjust and determine which of those two philosophies we use from week to week.



Dan Henning once led Boston College to victory in the Aloha Bowl. (Getty Images)
What year can you look back on and say that it was the best year you had in terms of accomplishing goals you had set out for yourself? Mark, Yadkinville, NC

I've had the opportunity to be with two Super Bowl winning teams in 1982 and 1987 (with Washington). Those were very satisfying. I took over a Boston College team (as head coach) in mid-March one year and we had a successful season, winning the Aloha Bowl out in Hawaii. But here in Carolina, one of the most satisfying things that we have done was finish the 2004 season with six wins in the last eight games while we were depleted with injuries. I think this past year, some of the things that happened in specific games and specific series of games, like the Minnesota game, the two Atlanta games and then the playoff games, were very satisfying in that I felt we got the best out of our offensive team.

Who does Jake (Delhomme) remind you of compared to other NFL quarterbacks, past and present? Hook, Monroe, NC

Jake reminds us a little of Brett Favre in that he takes shots downfield. He's willing to take a shot and if it's not successful, come back and do it again later. He's not shy. He's very confident like Brett. Plus, sometimes he throws balls off balance the way Brett Favre does and gets away with it. We don't like that all the time. We'd like him to be better mechanically. Brett Favre has been called a gunslinger. We'd like to utilize the term day trader with Jake. In this day and age, we're not in the Old West. We're into new technology, and a day trader is one who goes in there and is willing to take a shot. If it doesn't work, he can take a shot again. The bottom line is that at the end of the day he's going to come out on top.


Would you prefer to tailor a scheme to the talent of your players, or have only players that fit the scheme you prefer? Fireball, Cleveland, OH

The former is the way we operate. We have building blocks in our system, and we try to rely each year on the players who can best get the ball in the end zone, move the chains and do the things that we need to do to win football games. We assess that as we go. When we had all the running back injuries in 2004, we leaned more on Moose (Muhsin Muhammad) and the passing game and the statistics show that. In the 2003 season, when we weren't sure exactly what we had in the passing game, we picked up Stephen Davis and leaned on him as the guy to motorize the offense. Last year it was Steve Smith. I think it's obvious that we believe in what Hayden Fry (former Iowa and North Texas St. coach) would call his FTS offense. We Feed The Stud and we try and find ways of putting people in formations to make plays.

What is your offensive philosophy? Nathan, Shelby, NC

Feed The Stud. Move the football. The big thing we do here is based on the general philosophy of the football team that comes down from Coach Fox. Our job is to move the ball efficiently and score as many points as we can with as little risk as we can. We always weigh one against the other. Based on the situation of the game, meaning the quarter and score, we will minimize our risk while trying to be successful.


I know some teams script the first 10-15 plays of a game. Is that something you do? Wayne, Kannapolis, NC

I've heard a lot about that and talked to people who do it, but we don't script the first 15 plays. We have the first play scripted for each situation. The first short yardage. The first goal line play. The first play of the game. The first third-and-10 play. We take each situation and we kind of know which way we're going to go in those instances, but since the situation changes so much, I don't know how you can go down 15 in a row. We set ourselves up to be prepared for what we have seen. As the game changes, we must be able to adjust.

When you're out in town, do you ever have fans give you plays on napkins? Will, Wallops Island, VA

Oh sure. They give them to us on every form of parchment. We get emails. We get telephone calls. It's not unusual for me to come in on a Monday and someone has gotten my phone number and left a two- or three-minute message about what we did right or what we did wrong. There is a play here in my office that was given to me by my grandson. The year we went to the Super Bowl, he put that play up there in September and it's been there ever since. But yes, we get all kinds of ideas. They're usually from the outfield, but we don't discourage it because the fans like to have fun.

As far as intangible qualities go, what do you think is the most important quality a player can have? Fireball, Cleveland, OH

When the bottom line is struck, you want to have players capable of cohesion on offense. They have to be team players. This game has more people on the field than any other game we play in the United States, and it's not just one guy who's going to make the difference. It's cohesion and teamwork.

Fan Q&A: Dan Henning, Part II
March 16, 2006

Panthers.com

What offensive and defensive coaches not on your team do you respect the minds of the most and why? Fireball, Cleveland, OH

I've known a number of outstanding coaches. The League has a lot of them. I worked with Joe Gibbs in college and twice in the NFL. We went to Super Bowls and won them together. He's a guy who will uncover every stone, and you must be prepared when you play his teams because he's a tremendous competitor. You must be very analytical when you play a Bill Parcells team because he's going to be very analytical in exploring your team and determining which is the best approach to win. It's been very obvious that (defensive coordinator) Monte Kiffin down in Tampa has been able to gather the type of personnel that he likes to fit his scheme. I thought the defensive coaches for the New York Jets last year had an excellent approach and scheme. Most of the time the players are what worry you the most, but over the years there have been some coaches that have put some scary defenses together. The 1979 Steelers under Bud Carson and the 1985 Bears under Buddy Ryan were about as good as you could get. You'll hear writers say of modern teams, "this might be one of the best defenses ever," but when you put them up against the 79 Steelers and 85 Bears, you better have something special. They were super dominant.


What do you say to the people who are obsessed with the team having a receiving tight end? Derek, Raleigh, NC

I think what people might not understand is that there are five eligible receivers in the game. By virtue of the way we move people around, the tight end gets into one of the receiving spots sometimes, but his major job is as a blocker in pass protection. He still has to be effective for us in certain downs and distances and field positions, though. Our tight ends have been that way. When they have gotten down in the red zone, they have been much more effective. We don't feature one in particular, but our tight ends usually end up with about 45-50 catches between them. I think we do a pretty good job. We just don't have one who is going to catch 90 balls because we're not set up that way. There are teams in the League who have tight ends who catch that many, but if you look closely, you'll see they don't have a wide receiver who catches that many. If our tight end was the guy who was best suited to make big plays down the field, then we'd give it to him. Our best asset was Steve Smith last year, Muhsin Muhammad the year before, and Stephen Davis the year before that. We're going to give them the ball.

What (if any) is the missing piece to our offense? Terry, Faith, NC

People have to understand that we get our directive from the overall philosophy of the team. Our defense pretty much dictates the way we play. If our defense is playing very well, then we are going to be in pretty good shape the way we're set up. If our defense is not playing real well, and we have to come from behind, we weren't that capable of doing that last year. There isn't a missing ingredient in particular, but we need to do things early in the game to put ourselves in position where our defense becomes dominant. Right now, when it goes the other way for us, we're not that good at coming back. Although we have come back in the past, it eliminates our running game, which we put a lot of work into. I'm talking when you get behind 14-17 points.


What is the funniest thing you have ever seen on the field in your time as a coach? Mark, Jefferson, NC

I've seen some cutups and practical jokes. Out on the practice field, some of the things I have seen I cannot put into words for the fans. Suffice it to say, with practices and meetings, we're together so much for six months that we need to allow players and coaches to have levity. I've seen some great mimics. John Riggins used to be very entertaining at times with the Redskins and Rod Smart here with the Panthers. Michael Gaines is a very animated, entertaining guy at times.

Who is the player you most enjoyed coaching? Anthony, Buffalo, NY

That's the toughest question of all. I've enjoyed coaching many groups and many individuals. I'm not going to give you a name, but I'm going to give you a type of player who is most enjoyable to coach, at least for me. It's generally a guy who isn't a starter. He's fighting to help you out and working in many different areas to that end, and in practice he's a team player all the way. He brings an enthusiasm for the game, and a humility that makes him great to coach under any circumstance.

How much are you willing to adjust a game plan in mid-game if it doesn't appear to be working? Is it more important to stick patiently with a set plan or be able to shift on the fly? Richard, Columbus, OH

Being able to shift on the fly IS our plan. We go into a game with three or four different options or approaches. We have one where we pretty much think is the way our opponent is going to try to stop us, and that's our initial approach. But our whole philosophy is that we have to be able to adjust and improvise during the course of a game.


Do you have any pregame coaching rituals or superstitions that you take part in before a big game on Sunday? Eddie, Miami, FL

No, as a matter of fact I don't. The only ritual I go through is the way we prepare, the way we analyze the opponent, put our gameplan in, present it to the team, practice it and then go through the routine each week. That's not a superstition. That's just a belief in a correct way to prepare. I know a number of people who believe you put your socks on a certain way each time, or you leave for the stadium the same way every time. I can tell you this story. A guy takes his pastor to the boxing match and they had front row seats. When the two pugilists come into the ring, the one comes up and kneels down in front of the man and his pastor to pray. The guy says to his pastor, "Do you think that's going to help?" The pastor says, "Sure, if he can fight." Our major objective is not to have routines and superstitions but to simply make sure we're prepared.