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 hope everyone's team is showing improvement each week. My kids have a big game coming up this Saturday against the other "team to beat" in our league. We're very talented but are already fighting that complacency bug after only a few games! We will need to have a good week of practice along with bringing our "A" game with us Saturday morning to win. Hope all of you are doing well - it's great to be posting away again!
Dave Hartman CYFL Coach
"It's not the will to win that matters - everyone has that. It's the will to prepare to win that matters."
Won our first versus a team most my kids have never beaten, lost the second with a horribly sloppy offensive performance and a bone-head call by the coach (me, of course). My TB forgot his footwork on every play. Great kid, might play in college one day, had a 65 yard TD run on the first play of the first game, broke a 96 yard TD run on his first carry in the second game on an inside zone play. Extra point he went the wrong way and blew up the play. Lost half my experienced O-line to illness and injury, strugggled the rest of the game.
We're in a 6-6 tie at our 8 with 42 seconds left when I get a little too smart: they'll never be expecting us to go all vertical from there, catch it we win, interception is better than a punt. 66% chance of a good outcome, right? WRONG. We missed it by ab out a foot, incompletion stops the clock, we have to punt, you guessed it, the punt was blocked, ball game.
Learning is a dad-gum painful thing sometimes. I told the kids it was on me, but I'm gonna show 'em the tape tomorrow and show them how 3-6 plays in a tight game make the difference. We had about 5 that if we make the play the way I coached it, we get another TD and it's our game.
Football - what a concept.
"The quality of a man's life is in direct proportion to his pursuit of excellence." - Vince Lombardi
I think any of us that have been coaching kids for any length of time can very much relate to your post. I had a kid who was a very good tailback for me that as it turned out didn't know any of our offense, he relied on our fullback (a very sharp kid) to tell him what to do on every play! So much for my coaching genius, huh! To his credit (and my fullback's) they pulled it off masterfully because I never had a clue that he had no idea what was going on. As far as punting goes, I've found with my teams that 90% of the time on 4th down we're better off going for it rather than punting. Having a punt blocked or handing the ball over to the returning team's best athlete on the run are all too common unfortunately at the youth level. That goes for returning punts as well as they too almost always induce me into a heart attack. Hang in there coach as I'm a firm believer that you are due for some good luck.
Dave Hartman CYFL Coach
"It's not the will to win that matters - everyone has that. It's the will to prepare to win that matters."
Thanks, coach, I hate to punt too and only do so if forced to. Too dang scary, and I'm a guy who is willing to gamble a bit. In this case I had no choice, the ball was at our 8 with 30 seconds left on 4th down (which is of course what made my pass call on 3rd down so bone-headed). We tried to make it look like a spread formation, the QB was supposed to get back 7 yards instead of 4 and just quick kick it outta there. Unforunately a quick kid who kicked our tails all day got through the A gap and got on the ball. In retrospect, that kid deserved given how badly he ate our lunch.
As to punt returns, I tell 'em anybody who gets within 15 yards of a ball punted to us will be spending the rest of the game looking at me from behind. 'Nuff said.
"The quality of a man's life is in direct proportion to his pursuit of excellence." - Vince Lombardi
We were off this week and stand 5-1 with two games to play until our 4 team playoff begins. We were able to play our reserves a lot in a 41-0 game last week and hope to be able to do the same in our remaining two games before the playoffs. We got a kid back last week off of IR (broken wrist from a motocross accident a week before we got into pads) and he will definitely help us in our backfield as well as on defense.
I put on an academy award winning (well, not quite that good) performance at last Tuesday's practice by lining the kids up to run them at the beginning of practice pretending to be very upset at how practice was progressing, asking them if they thought running all practice would make us a better team... of course their response was yes, but I surprised them by saying no, the way to get better was to go eat pizza while watching some of our previous game tapes! Needless to say they were thrilled at the change in plans. The kids had a good time but I also think it was helpful for them to see themselves as we actually played, particularly during our one 6-0 loss. It enabled them to visualize the opportunities I've been telling them we had and how that single block here or missed assignment there made the difference in the outcome.
If we get the rematch we're looking for in a few weeks, it will be interesting to see if we benefited from this. Even if we didn't, the kids had a blast and it was nice way to enjoy part of our off week. I'm riding the bus with Coach Campbell and his team this Friday and am looking forward to traveling with the team again and coming back with a big district win! Hope you are well Coach and thanks for checking in on us!
Dave Hartman CYFL Coach
"It's not the will to win that matters - everyone has that. It's the will to prepare to win that matters."
Coach Dave, Thats great to hear that you have the insight to understand the theory that all work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy! It has been a tactic that I have employed as the season gets into the long, drawn out phase with excellent re-energizing benefits for the athletes. I hope you get a second shot at the team that got you in the first go around! You wait and see, that Pizza and film session will pay off for you. It is great that you get to ride with Coach Campbell's team and observe first hand how he handles his squad on the road. Best of luck the rest of the way!
JC
J.C. EASTON<BR>HEAD COACH<BR>GA TIGERS FOOTBALL<BR>PROFESSIONAL MINOR LEAGUE
Coach Dave, Did you learn from the road trip experience with Coach Campbell? I 'm sure you did. Did your kids handle things well this past Saturday? Did your youngster make it back for the game as planned (the one who had the motor cross wreck?). Do you feel as though your kids benefitted from the Pizza and film session?
JC
J.C. EASTON<BR>HEAD COACH<BR>GA TIGERS FOOTBALL<BR>PROFESSIONAL MINOR LEAGUE
It was a great trip with Coach Campbell and the team Friday. An exciting game which saw us get up 20-0 only to have to come from behind in the fourth quarter to win 40-31. I witnessed one of the absolute best individual games by a high school level receiver I've ever seen (4 catches for 3 TD's and right at 200 yds.) and one of the gutsiest play calls I've ever seen at the end of a game as well. Pre-game talks focused on the continuing need to "get up off the mat" to make a play and sure enough that's exactly what transpired during the game. Coach Campbell's team has begun to play its best football of the season at just the right time. Coach, I can't begin to tell you how gratifying it is to see things start to come together for Coach Campbell and his staff. It was a great learning opportunity as well as a great experience for all of us involved with the program and since our league president (he also made the trip) and I did such a great job in our very important role as "good luck charms" we might even be invited back in a couple of weeks when the playoffs begin!
My kids Saturday unfortunately looked like they had gotten in at 2am the night before just like their coach! We won the game easily 27-0 but had 2 scores in the first quarter called back for blatant, unnecessary penalties and proceeded through most of the game in a real funk that we just couldn't ever seem to come out of. I had the task of reminding the kids why we play the game and why I wasn't pleased despite winning the game handily. I've always stated to them that our goal each week needs to be for us as a team to play the best football we're capable of and that I do not care what the score is if we play the best we are capable of. I asked our kids if they remembered what we as a coaching staff have told them throughout the season, that we will ultimately play as we practice and not surprisingly the kids agreed that our practices were not as good as they should have been lately. With the time change we will be limited to 3 one hour long practices a week through the remainder of the season. This week will be as light and fun as possible before heading into our first playoff game next week. We plan on attempting our first kicked extra point during this week's stadium day game which should be very interesting and amusing as well! I think we'll be all right coach if we can refocus their attention for the few weeks we have left. A friend of mine who's an assistant on the team came up with a "wristband" idea (similar to the now popular Lance Armstrong bands) from a book that refers to a time in which Barry Alvarez used them before a big game with Ohio State. Our bands will read TIGERCAT FOOTBALL - I'M IN and the players will be told to ask a coach for one only after truly deciding to commit themselves to their teammates for our remaining games ahead. We'll see how this works. We might also take a day off to go observe Coach Campbell's MHS team prepare for their playoff game next week to show the kids what focus should be all about. Thanks again for asking Coach Easton - I hope all is well with you!
Dave Hartman CYFL Coach
"It's not the will to win that matters - everyone has that. It's the will to prepare to win that matters."