Tag: Coaching

Self-Indulgent Post of the Week: A Visit from Todd Bradford

Maryland defensive coordinator Todd Bradford

As a football coach and fan, I had an interesting experience today.  University of Maryland defensive coordinator Todd Bradford (official Maryland bio here) stopped in to our school to visit our head coach.  When he walked in, I immediately recognized him from the Nike Coach of the Year Clinic, which I attended back in March.

As coaches often do, he was in the area doing some recruiting.  I had a few minutes to chat him up.  We talked a little bit about his presentation at the coaches clinic, I asked him how his spring practices went, etc.  He had some interesting things to say about the team’s preparation.  Maryland opens the season on September 5th with a televised night game against Miami, which ought to be exciting for the Terrapins, who don’t frequently get a chance to play in prime time.

Coach Bradford asked if I’m from the area originally, and I told him I was from Michigan.  He asked where, and when I told him, he said, “Yeah, I know where that is.  I used to coach at Eastern Michigan.  Ypsilanti.”  I said I went to school right next to Ypsilanti at the University of Michigan.  His response was, “I always wanted to coach there.  That’s a great place.  I used to work their summer camps, you know, but once I went to Wisconsin [where he coached defensive backs from 2000-01], I couldn’t work the camps anymore, since they’re in the Big Ten.”

We talked a little bit longer about recruits at my school and in the area, but obviously, that’s not conversation that should be relayed here.  Shortly afterward, I left him with the head coach and carried on with my day.

As you might know, college coaches spend a lot of time on the road trying to create relationships with local programs and schools.  There was a great article about the life of college basketball recruiters in last week’s issue of Sports Illustrated.  We’ve heard about Darrell Funk, Mark Smith, and Fred Jackson making school visits in recent weeks, and those are the types of things they do when spring practices and the fall football season aren’t in full swing.  They hit the road and visit every school they can, hoping that relationships built will help them land a recruit or gain some support in the coming months and years.

Nothing earth shattering happened and the more interesting parts of the conversation should remain undisclosed, but it’s not every day that you get some one-on-one time with an ACC coach.

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Michigan vs. Wisconsin Awards

Maybe Wisconsin is good for something.

Let’s see more of this guy on offense . . . Kelvin Grady.  I never really expected much from Grady, but he’s turned out to be more of a player this year.  His playing time diminished last year, and it seems to have diminished once again this season.  But it seems like every time Michigan quarterbacks throw in Grady’s direction, he makes a good play.  I don’t think he’s a gamebreaker or in line for the #1 jersey; he just seems clutch.  The kid has 16 catches for 200 yards on the season (12.5 yards per catch) and made a very nice catch on a ball thrown behind him this past Saturday. 

Let’s see less of this guy on offense . . . eh, I dunno.  I thought the guys played pretty well on Saturday.  Denard Robinson failed to make some key plays on Saturday, but I’m not about to call for him to be benched at this point.  He’s pretty good and stuff.

Let’s see more of this guy on defense . . . Thomas Gordon.  What ever happened to Thomas Gordon?  He hasn’t played defense since the Illinois game, and he hasn’t been on the injury report, either.  When I see 5’10” and . . . ahem . . . 197 lb. true freshman free safety Ray Vinopal creeping up to the line to run blitz, it makes me wonder why Prison Abs Gordon is sitting on the sideline.  Gordon isn’t huge, but he’s had a couple years in the strength and conditioning program and he didn’t earn the aforementioned nickname for nothing.

Let’s see less of this guy on defense . . . run-blitzing Ray Vinopal.  Greg Robinson, leave Vinopal 10-15 yards off the ball.  Yeah, he takes good angles and hasn’t really let anyone behind him yet this year.  I’m not sure what those qualities have to do with him stopping 5’11”, 236 lb. Montee Ball running up the middle every play and/or taking on a tight end/fullback/offensive lineman.  That’s just poor defensive scheming.  It’s not like you don’t have other options (Cam Gordon, Thomas Gordon, and Jordan Kovacs) to send on a run blitz, guys who are more adept and more physically ready to make those plays.  But, you know, whatever.  I can’t say I was surprised to see a harebrained defensive scheme fail miserably in Week 11.

MVP of the Wisconsin game . . . Denard Robinson.  It’s odd that Denard passed for 239 yards, rushed for 121 yards, and accounted for all 4 touchdowns (2 passing, 2 rushing) . . . and I still wasn’t that impressed.  I’m sure there are a lot of plays that Robinson wishes he could do over, and it’s a testament to the offense’s design that so many plays were left on the field.  Denard was clearly Michigan’s best player in the game, but losing by 20 points makes it tough to call anyone an “MVP.”

Coaching Dispersion Amongst Big Ten Teams

There was a comment left in the Mailbag post about Rich Roriguez keeping his job regarding the dispersion of coaches on Michigan’s team.  Commenter TriFloyd brought up an issue with the fact that Michigan has 5 offensive coaches, 4 defensive coaches (one of whom doubles as the special teams coordinator), and a head coach that concentrates heavily on offense.  What better way to address this potential imbalance than seeing how other Big Ten teams do it?

Illinois: 5 offensive, 4 defensive, 1 head coach
Indiana: 5 offensive, 4 defensive, 1 head coach
Iowa: 5 offensive, 4 defensive, 1 head coach
Michigan: 5 offensive, 4 defensive, 1 head coach
Michigan State: 5 offensive, 4 defensive, 1 head coach
Minnesota: 4 offensive, 4 defensive, 1 head coach
Northwestern: 5 offensive, 4 defensive, 1 head coach
Notre Dame: 5 offensive, 4 defensive, 1 head coach
Ohio State: 5 offensive, 4 defensive, 1 head coach
Penn State: 5 offensive, 4 defensive, 1 head coach
Purdue: 4 offensive, 4 defensive, 1 special teams, 1 head coach
Wisconsin: 5 offensive, 4 defensive, 1 head coach

Conclusion: Yeah, everyone does it this way.  With the exception of Purdue and Minnesota, every team in the Big Ten has five coaches dedicated to offense, four dedicated to defense, and a head coach.  Purdue has the luxury of not devoting a specific coach to the tight ends, since the TE position is virtually non-existent in their offense.  Minnesota is in the unique position of having only nine coaches right now, since head coach Tim Brewster was fired a couple weeks ago; prior to Jeff Horton’s promotion to head coach, he was an offensive coach, too.  So the Golden Gophers are essentially in the same boat as all but Purdue.

Those head coaches lean in different directions.  For example, Rodriguez leans heavily toward offense.  I would assume that Pat Fitzgerald at Northwestern spends more time with the defense, considering he’s a former linebacker.  Joe Paterno just leans kinda forward because he’s 114 years old and gravity does that to you after awhile.

I failed to research this adequately, but in skimming the coaches, it seemed that any designated special teams coordinators also leaned toward being defensive coaches.  Except for field goals, you mostly want guys who will fly around and hit things going at a high rate of speed; punt coverage teams, kickoff teams, and kickoff return teams all have to have guys with no regard for their own health.  Offensive linemen are too slow to be involved in 75% of special teams play; wide receivers typically aren’t big hitters; and quarterbacks don’t play special teams unless they’re the holder for field goals and extra points.  That leaves tight ends, running backs, and all manner of defensive players to fill out the vast majority of special teams units.  So it makes sense that the coaches who work with those defensive players would be put in a position to coach special teams.

The fact is that offense takes more time to develop.  It’s about timing, working together, and execution.  Every unit has to work at the same speed or the hole closes before the running back gets there, the quarterback doesn’t get to his drop in time, the wide receiver makes his cut too early, the running back doesn’t give his blocks time to develop, etc.  Defense is mostly about effort, reaction speed, and flying to the football.  Offensive players need more coaching.  I realize that may not be the case with this team right this minute – and it might have behooved Coach Rodriguez to devote one more coach to defense this year with this many freshmen playing – but it’s not like Rodriguez is doing something crazy here.

In summary, having “too many offensive coaches” is a red herring.  It’s the same everywhere.  I’ve seen this issue brought up several times, not just in TriFloyd’s comment, so I thought it was worth addressing.  Look elsewhere for reasons that this team isn’t succeeding.

A Day in the Life of a Coach

This is slightly off-topic, but since it’s my blog . . . I guess it’s on-topic. I’m a high school teacher* and football coach, and today is the first day of two-a-days. I am not a varsity head coach; if I were, I wouldn’t have time to keep up with this blog. For those of you who haven’t coached or haven’t played high school football, I figured I’d give you a brief breakdown of what an average week of coaching looks like. Hopefully, you can understand why posting might become a little more sporadic.

*I’m a teacher who actually teaches a core subject, not P.E. or Driver’s Ed.

Monday
5:45 a.m. Wake up
7:00 a.m. Arrive at school
8:00 a.m. Begin teaching
2:30 p.m. School ends
2:40 p.m. Enter the field house; take care of pre-practice duties
3:00 p.m. Begin defensive practice
5:30 p.m. End practice
6:00 p.m. Freshman game begins
7:30 p.m. Junior varsity game begins
9:30 p.m. Junior varsity game ends
10:00 p.m. Arrive home

Tuesday
5:45 a.m. Wake up
7:00 a.m. Arrive at school
8:00 a.m. Begin teaching
2:30 p.m. School ends
2:40 p.m. Enter field house; take care of pre-practice duties
3:00 p.m. Begin offensive practice
5:30 p.m. End practice; game plan meetings; watch opponent film
7:30 p.m. Arrive home; grade papers; plan lessons
11:00 p.m. Go to bed

Wednesday
5:45 a.m. Wake up
7:00 a.m. Arrive at school
8:00 a.m. Begin teaching
2:30 p.m. School ends
2:40 p.m. Enter field house; take care of pre-practice duties
3:00 p.m. Begin defensive practice
5:30 p.m. End practice; game plan meetings
7:00 p.m. Arrive home; grade papers; plan lessons
11:00 p.m. Go to bed

Thursday
5:45 a.m. Wake up
7:00 a.m. Arrive at school
8:00 a.m. Begin teaching
2:30 p.m. School ends
2:40 p.m. Enter field house; take care of pre-practice duties
3:00 p.m. Begin offensive walk-through
5:00 p.m. End walk-through; analyze practices; finalize game plan; remove adjustments that won’t be useful
8:00 p.m. Arrive home; grade papers; plan lessons

Friday
5:45 a.m. Wake up
7:00 a.m. Arrive at school
8:00 a.m. Begin teaching
2:30 p.m. School ends
3:00 p.m. Team dinner in school cafeteria
4:00 p.m. Team gets dressed; meet with individual players and coaches
5:30 p.m. Pre-game walk-through
6:30 p.m. Re-enter locker room for pre-game speeches and last-minute adjustments
7:00 p.m. Begin game
9:30 p.m. Win game
12:00 a.m. Arrive home

Saturday
6:30 a.m. Wake up
7:00 a.m. Arrive at field house; review game film
8:00 a.m. Team breakfast
8:30 a.m. Team film session
10:00 a.m. Supervise weightlifting session
11:30 a.m. Arrive home
12:00 p.m. Watch Michigan football game