Weekly Game Plan

Joseph Veach

For me our plan for future opponents always started on Thursday's. We have a stadium on campus so we almost always played on Friday nights. Thursday nights were nights for the staff to split up and go scout other teams that are on our schedule. This was great because we could get film of opponents and it also served as a bonding experience for the staff many times. In my last two years as HC I stopped going out on Thursdays because I had a young family at home. I sent out the younger coaches to scout and I used Thursday nights for family night and then to start the breakdown of the following weeks opponent on film.

The major work would always happen on Saturdays. We would have our players come in for a workout and film starting at 9am. The staff would arrive at 7:30 to watch the previous night's game and chart the stats.

When the players would begin their workouts around 10am they would do so with some of the assistants. The coordinator's and myself would start to break down our opponent. We would watch a game or two so we could get a general idea about who we were playing so that when the kids were done with their workout they could come in and watch our opponent for about 30-60 minutes.

After that the players would go home and as a staff we would really start the work. We meet together first to discuss anything that stands out about the opponent, players to watch, general schemes, etc. Then we break up as an offense and defense and start to chart formations, personnel, plays, etc. The coordinator would always start this step so he could use the terminology that he wanted for certain things. Once that was all done the younger assistants would finish the charting using the OC/DC terminology.

Next each side of the ball would brainstorm ideas for plays, scheme, personnel, etc. Each coach was put in charge of one aspect of the scouting report. For example, one coach would create the DEPTH CHART page which would list starters and backups for our opponent. Another would update our own depth chart since many times it would be different from the night before. Another coach was in charge of blitzes, another for coverages, etc. I always seemed to update the special teams depth chart myself. It always seems like that's the one thing that changes the most from week to week for us.

By the end of the day each coach would send their "part" of the scouting report to the coordinator and they would put it together for the kids on Monday. I made the copies myself since many times I was the only one on campus with a copy code.

We also would plan one offensive day of practice and one defensive day of practice (Monday and Tuesday) but not Wednesday. We would plan Wednesday's practice after the Tuesday practice so we could analyze the first two days and go from there.

By Wednesday night the coordinator's should have their gameplans ready to go for walkthroughs on Thursday.