Installing Today’s Hybrid Pistol Offense Run & Pass from Top to Bottom
This manual provides you with the full offensive line, receiver, and quarterback mechanics for installing each offensive play presented. Coach Campbell has left no stone unturned for implementing today’s Pistol Offense into your program.
I know that this has been a popular request, but I am new to the forum and new to coaching in general. I am currently coaching JV football at a small (650 students) private school in the western suburbs of Chicago. We are a new program, this will be our second year of Varsity and our third year of JV. I am looking for information regarding practice plans, practice philosophy, but anything related to "what a new coach/new program needs to know" is appreciated! Thanks.
Thanks Coach! I was wondering if you could elaborate a little more on the "small group/large group" sections. Also, do you have any thoughts on installation schedules for offense/defense? I plan on focusing on fundamentals and execution. I really think that my team would benefit by keeping it simple, but doing it as close to perfect as we can get. Any thoughts would be welcome!
Small group = 2 to 5 people (such as 2 men zone blocking, or even Half Line scrimmages).
Large Group = 7 vs 7, ETC.
Team = generally 11 vs 11.
Following is some stuff from the great Paul Brown. His practices were VERY ORGANIZED:
PAUL BROWN PRACTICE ORGANIZATION
1. Practice how to practice.
2. Practices 60 to 90 minutes long (generally 90). No kneeling, lying down, or loafing.
3. Squad meeting before taking field. Outline what will be covered that day.
4. First thing upon taking the field is a routine warm up to get the feel of the ground. You will have a partner your same size and position. Tackle from one side and then the other, and throw different kinds of blocks on each other. Basic fundamentals all the way.
5. Then go to calisthenics to loosen up all the muscles.
6. Running is next.
7. Do plenty of dummy scrimmage with the defense giving half or three –quarter resistance. Get the timing and polishing needed to carry out assignments.
8. Give the old “college try” all the way. Run on and off the field like you mean business. This has a psychological effect on the opponent.
9. Build very slowly and very carefully, and emphasize excellence in everything we do. In training camp, put in only two plays a day (in “two-a-days” put in two runs in the morning, and two passes in the afternoon).
Paul Brown Set The Bar High, And His Teams Rose
Paul Brown and his Cleveland Browns arrived at the stadium at the same time as their opponents, the Baltimore Colts.
Brown watched as several Baltimore players got off the bus smoking cigars. To him, the scene said one thing: lack of discipline. Before the game, his Browns had their playbooks in their hands, not cigars.
"We can lick any team that gets off a bus smoking cigars," he said.
The Browns won that game. Brown had coached them well. It was all part of his approach to running a tight ship.
"He was so organized in everything he did -- hired the right people, coaches and players," former Browns quarterback Otto Graham said, according to Ron Smith in "Cleveland Browns: The Official Illustrated History." "He was like a general in the Army or an admiral in the Navy or a CEO."
Brown (1908-91) first gained attention coaching Washington High School's football team in Massillon, Ohio. During his nine years there (1932-1940), the Tigers won 80 games, lost eight and tied two. They captured the state title six straight years, and the National Sports News Service twice voted Brown's Tigers national champions.
In 1941 he moved into college ball when he became coach at Ohio State. His Buckeyes went 6-1-1 his first season and 9-1 in 1942. That year they won the Big Ten title and their first national championship.
Brown was offered a job coaching the Cleveland Browns of the newly started All-America Football Conference in 1946.
His namesake Browns won all four AAFC titles, going 47-4-3 until the league folded. Cleveland was one of four AAFC teams that joined the National Football League, and it won NFL titles in 1950, 1954 and 1955.
Brown wasn't one to rest on old glories. In 1968, a year after he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, he founded and coached the Cincinnati Bengals. The team won two division championships during his tenure. He stayed on as general manager after retiring in 1975.
Whether on the high school, college or pro level, Brown wanted his men to be good players and solid citizens. He wasn't willing to lower the bar for a player's character based on football skills. If a friend said, "He's not your kind of guy," Brown wouldn't pursue the prospect.
Before landing players at any level, he'd give them intelligence tests to find out their capacity to learn. Experience taught him that a player's learning skills were linked to poise under stress, which in turn was key to a consistent, winning level of play. Those who couldn't handle pressure in close games were often the first to make big mistakes.
That's why, as the Massillon Tigers' coach, he came up with a system to gauge potential players' intelligence. He asked a psychologist to create a test and then combined the results with the boy's grade school record. It worked so well, Brown used the same measures when he coached at Ohio State.
"Everywhere we did our testing we found that players with low intelligence progressed only so far in our football, then quickly leveled off," he said in "PB: The Paul Brown Story," written with Jack Clary. "Knowing a man's capacity to learn before we drafted him helped us calculate his potential."
Since he emphasized learning, he tended to coach his teams like he was teaching a classroom. Before every practice, he made sure each player was in his assigned seat in the football classroom so Brown would know right away who was absent.
Brown then told the players what the objectives for that day were and how long they'd have to meet them. He came up with the idea of using playbooks when coaching the Tigers. Each player was responsible for learning plays in the playbook.
The use of playbooks carried over to his Ohio State and pro football teams. When he first coached the Browns, his team carried their playbooks and took exams on the way to games while other teams brought comic books and cards.
"Our guys took a lot of ribbing about that until we started winning so often, and then we saw fewer comic books and more playbooks," he wrote.
Brown liked to keep each practice session to 90 minutes because he found a player's learning capacity waned if practice went too long.
Brown also had rules for judging physical talent. He thought all players should be fast. Because running is crucial to the sport, speed was of utmost importance when choosing players. Therefore, many of his teams' players were sprinters.
Muscle and bone structure helped round out his criteria. "I've always believed that overall team speed, together with size and weight, is the difference between great teams and ordinary teams," he said.
Players who passed physical tests weren't shoo-ins. If they didn't have football smarts, they were out.
Brown knew good communication was vital to successful coaching. With every team he coached, he told the players in his opening speech what he expected from them, how he expected them to act on and off the field and what he sought to achieve each day of the season.
When he asked them to do something, he'd tell them why.
"When we told our players why, they were more willing to accept everything we asked them to do and to get into the spirit of the game," Brown said.
This story originally ran Jan 10, 2003, on Leaders & Success.
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Post by bowlingleague on Apr 10, 2008 18:13:01 GMT
Thanks again for the information. As a lifelong steelers fan, it is hard to think that anything coming out of cleveland can be helpful! I am obviously joking. Paul Brown added so much to the game and I appreciate his paving the way so to speak. Thanks again for the help.
Two of my former players (Darren Perry & James Farrior) PLAYED for the Steelers. Perry also coached with them under Cowher.
Current Steeler O-Line Coach (Larry Zierlein) is a good friend oif mine.
PS: The FOLLOWING has some great thoughts on practice as well:
COMMON COACHING ERRORS AND HOW TO AVOID THEM
By: Bud Wilkinson
GENERAL COMMENTS: The best coach is the one who makes the fewest mistakes; the one who does the best teaching job; the one who is the best organizer. Writing the X’s & O’s is not the most important thing. There are 22 variables in a football game. Coach must be a salesman to the extent that when his team loses, they don’t blame him or the offensive and/or defensive system, but rather themselves.
ERRORS IN TEACHING METHODS:
FIRST = FAILURE TO USE TIME EFFICIENTLY. Failure to recognize the time factor available to get the job done. Planning makes for valuable use of time. Too long on any one thing produces boredom. When boredom comes in, learning goes out. Football players have a short attention span. Hold to time schedule.
SECOND = FAILURE TO EXPLAIN THE PURPOSE OF THE DRILL. Tell the boy WHY he is doing what he is trying to accomplish and he will do a better job. Explain WHY, then show HOW.
THIRD = IMPROPER TEACHING PROGRESSION. You can’t teach a boy how to block until he has learned stance. If he hasn’t learned stance, he doesn’t know how to step out of the stance into the block.
FOURTH = TOO MUCH VERBAL INSTRUCTION ON THE FIELD. How much can boy learn from your verbal instruction with his helmet on, he’s breathing hard, he aches, he’s stunned, etc. Do WHO and WHY in chalk talk. Teach assignments before hitting the field. Correct on the field. Teach – no! (HOW is taught on the field – not WHO & WHY).
FIFTH = TOO MUCH DEMONSTRATION BY COACH. How much you know is not important. How much player knows is.
SIXTH = BEING ON THE FIELD TOO LONG. Better to have a team eager to play rather than physically tired. How long to practice is a judgment factor. Cut down as season goes along – not going to change mechanical ability late in season. Only one rule never violated at Oklahoma. If one coach on staff feels practice too long, we must cut it down. More boys play poorly because they practiced too long than boys playing poorly because they didn’t practice long enough.
ERRORS IN TACTICS AND STRATEGY:
FIRST = TACTICS AND VICTORY. You get very few victories on tactics. Victories come if you can out block, out tackle, out fundamental your opponent. Red Sanders quote: “Intimidate them physically”! Outmaneuver – no. Defeat – yes.
SECOND = CLEAR CUT PHILOSOPHY A MUST. Decide on an offense and defense that will suit your personnel then stick to it. Depth of morale can be determined by a kid’s reaction to a loss. If morale deep, they’ll blame themselves. If morale shallow, they’ll blame you.
THIRD = TOO MANY PLAYS AND DEFENSES. Subtract the number of different plays used in the game from the total number of plays you practiced. If this number is too large you better get rid of some plays. It is difficult enough to know when to run off- tackle, but if you have four ways to run off-tackle, you will never get the right play. Beauty of Split-T was it’s very limited number of plays
ERRORS IN JUDGMENT:
FIRST = BE REALISTIC ABOUT PLAYER’S ABILITY. Don’t just put an X or an O on the board. Put up the boy’s name. Immediately his limitations affect the offense or defense you put up. Whale of a lot of difference between Dick Butkus and Humpty Dumpty.
SECOND = WHEN CHIPS ARE DOWN, BEST PLAYERS ARE IN THE GAME. It is a mistake to be able to play blue chippers only one way. Say best kid you have can only go on offense. Say opponent has ball for 45 minutes. These are 45 minutes he cannot help you.
ERRORS IN OFF FIELD RELATIONSHIP:
FIRST = RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHER FACULTY MEMBERS. The environment that exists has a lot to do with winning or losing. If they are with you, your job is easier. If they are against you, you’re in trouble. Work on a program of how to win friends and influence faculty members.
SECOND = ORGANIZE A MOTHER’S CLUB. Get mother on your side by pointing out to her what he can get out of football besides winning games.
THIRD = PRESS, TV, AND RADIO. Straight up fact of life that the great majority of people get their impression of you from what they read in the paper, see on TV, or hear on radio. Their jobs depend on info. Get it to them to make their jobs easier. Get these people on your side. Let them know what you’re doing. They will interpret what you’re doing in the way you want it interpreted if they are with you.
ERRORS IN DEVELOPING MORALE (MORALE IS TO THE PHYSICAL AS 4 IS TO 1).
FIRST = FOOTBALL BEGINS WITH MORALE! Once you get morale, it is easy to maintain. How to get it is a problem.
SECOND = HOW TO LOSE MORALE. Do what you said you’re going to do. Don’t say we’re going to practice 1 ½ hours and go 2 ½ hours. Training rules – if you’re not going to enforce them, don’t have them.
THIRD = MORALE STEMS FROM DISCIPLINE (ALL Discipline begins by being on time).
FOURTH = TREAT PLAYERS AS A PERSON. If he feels you are interested in him only as a football player, he won’t go all out for you. If you are interested in his academics, his personal problems, etc. and he knows this, he’ll go all out for you. Convince him that football is good for his future.
FIFTH = One year, N.D. had 2 QB’s. Under great athlete, team failed; under mediocre QB, team succeeded. Why? Captain’s reply – “the great athlete is trying to show how good HE is. The TEAM is trying to make the average guy look good”.
COACH IN YOUR OWN WAY:
FIRST = DON’T COPY! Note clinicians and their personalities. ALL different ways of being successful. Plan carefully in the off season. Can’t take golf lessons between the 8th green and 9th tee.
CONCLUDING REMARKS: The man who is best organized and does the best teaching job, is the best coach.
Post by bowlingleague on Apr 11, 2008 17:16:22 GMT
That is cool that you had some former players play for the steelers and you are good friends with a position coach! I have always been steelers fan so any connection to them I find to be exciting. One of my specific responsibilities on my team is working with the O/D line. Any thoughts on line play? My players are going to be generally undersized and probably quick as opposed to big. They are smart, but many are new to the game (I am a JV coach). Anything that you can provide for me would be appreciated! Thanks again for the articles that you have sent my way.
Post by bowlingleague on Apr 14, 2008 20:17:21 GMT
As far as O line, last year we ran a lot of option and off-tackle. We tried to combo a lot. We didn't pull very much, but I think we will try to pull the guard/tackle more this year. We also have a good QB and I think we will try to pass more this season as well out of some 4 wide. This year we are running a 5-2. We probably won't due much up front other than some slants or drop the ends into coverage. As I stated, we are undersized and need to rely on speed rather than brute strength. From what I have read, it seems the veer may be a good offense to run with this type of lineman. Any thoughts are welcome.