The Football Coaching Podcast With Joe Daniel

Season 8 of The Football Coaching Podcast is focusing on deep dives on individual play calls, so what better play to start with than the Zone Read? In fact, we've come full circle - Zone Read Option was the topic on the very first episode of the podcast back in 2012! The deep dive series will take a look at play calls from every angle. We look at the origins of the play, the details of execution, how to attack or defend the play, and how to evaluate and evolve the play within your playbook.

The season kicks off and that call you’ve been working on for 6 months just is not working. Run plays, passing concepts, blitzes, stunts or coverages. Whatever it is… it’s not working. This is the 5 step process to evaluate that football play call before you just kick it to the curb. You’re always smarter in February than you are in September and October (or whenever your season happens this year!), so let’s figure out what the problem is!

There’s an old saying among option football coaches. OK, really it’s among all football coaches… mostly old football coaches. If you can’t block ’em, read ’em. Pretty simple. When you don’t have anybody that can take that guy 1 on 1, you always have another option. Just make him wrong, no matter what he does. That’s the premise behind option football. Make one guy wrong, no matter what he does. For coaches running a true option football system, this is a way of life. Let nothing get in the way of reading the guy that’s causing problems. Then there’s the rest of us. We run an offense that is not based solely on reading defenders. Are we left out of the option offense goodness? Nope. In this episode of The Football Coaching Podcast, I’ll show you how to expand your offensive playbook using option football principles. Without confusing your players and causing a total disaster in the backfield.

Any time you decide to install a new playbook for your football team, you could run into trouble. It takes time to teach the skills your players need. It takes time for the coaches to understand how to teach those skills, too. The knee jerk reaction when your team isn’t firing on all cylinders in the first few weeks of the season is to panic. Go back to what you were doing before. But that’s not the answer. This week’s Football Coaching Podcast looks at how to make in-season adjustments when your brand new plan of attack isn’t working like you expected. This is how to get your team back on track with the changes you need to make to reach a whole new level of success.

Football drills are a big favorite among coaches. It's our thing. Standing there holding a whistle, watching your guys run around hoops and over bags. That's what coaching football is all about. Except that most defensive drills are a waste of time for high school football players. They end up never translating the drills to the field. Today you'll find out the football drills that really matter at every defensive position to get your players ready to win on game day.

When they hit the football coaching scene a few years ago, defensive coordinators were scratching their heads defending RPOs. But while it's a great tool for offenses to attack, run pass options are not as mystical as they may seem. If you've got a good RPO team on your schedule this season, you don't need to panic and change your whole defense. Follow the 5 tips for defending RPO's in this podcast to shut 'em down.

Using a creative evolution in the coverage package leading to a modified 2-Read Coverage in his 4-2-5 Defense, Hollis-Brookline High School Defensive Coordinator Fred Hubert helped lead his team to a New Hampshire State Championship in 2019. Find out the keys to the team's success and how this take the 2-Read Quarters Coverage package can work for your defense.

Week 1 of your season sets the tone, so you need to have your best offensive game plan ready to go. With the 2020/2021 season that doesn’t mean having incredible strategies, either. It means getting the most from your offensive playbook.  The game plan that wins this year is the one that’s tailored to your players. What they can handle. It’s about keeping it simple so they can play with confidence from the start. No matter what that defensive coordinator throws at you. Study Game Film Unlike most seasons, you probably won’t get any scrimmage film this year. You’re going to get a couple weeks of practice, then jump right into that first game of the season. You need to know all you can about the defense you’re facing before you can develop your offensive game plan. So study last season’s film. Anything you can get your hands on. “Can I break this defense with formations? Can I break this defense with plays? Where is it not sound? What is it not ready for?” Identify who they are. Not what you saw last year, bu

There’s a good reason so many defensive coordinators are also coaching linebackers on their staff. The position is critical for High School and Youth Football defenses to stop the run. Many coaches put their best defender at an Inside Linebacker position. If you’re fortunate enough to have a natural, instinctive linebacker to play the position then your job is easy. Just stay out of his way and don’t slow him down. For the rest of your guys, you need to coach. Earlier this season on The Football Coaching Podcast, I shared the ASKA Principle that has become one of the core principles for our defensive coaching systems. On this week’s episode of the Football Coaching Podcast, we’re going in-depth on coaching linebackers using the ASKA Principle. What is ASKA? ASKA stands for Alignment, Stance, Key Reads and Assignment. It started as a pre-snap checklist (stolen from the TCU coaching staff) for our defensive players. It evolved to a checklist for the coaches, and then to the foundation of how each defensive posi

Welcome to Coaching Football 101, class is now in session. Today's episode barely scratches the surface of all that a new football coach needs to know, but we only have an hour. A football coaching friend likes to say that every man in America thinks he can do two things: grill and coach football (in 2020 you can add doctor to that list). But every experienced football coach knows at least half of that is not remotely true. What You'll Learn in Coaching Football 101 This podcast isn't the place to get into the details of coaching football. The little things like how to design a good play, decide which play to call, or figure out what drills to run during your practice. That's what a lot of new coaches are looking for. But in Football Coaching 101, we need to start at the beginning. Instead, today's lesson is going to focus on 10 things every football coach should know. Young or old. Youth, High School, College or NFL. First year coaches and 30 year veterans. 10 Things Every Football Coach Should Kno

Coach Tim Snow wasn't thinking about spread formations when he first started studying the Pistol Power Offense System in 2015. That first version of the system looked a lot more like the traditional One Back Offense that I first learned from Coach Bill Mountjoy years ago. But the great thing about the System is that it evolves. And as Coach Snow and the Winnisquam High School offense evolved in New Hampshire, so did their offensive playbook. The version of the playbook that won back to back New Hampshire State Championships in 2018 and 2019 uses a lot more wide open spread formations. But it keeps the same core principles and schemes. Scroll down to listen to this episode of The Football Coaching Podcast and my interview with Coach Snow on the use of spread formations in the Pistol Power Offense System. Versatility of the System Coach Snow credits the versatility of the Pistol Power Offense System with helping his offense evolve to fit the players. Each season, the Winnisquam staff takes a look at what his at

Every coach has been trying to figure out just what's going to happen with the 2020 football season. From state to state there seems to be just as much uncertainty today as there was 3 months ago. This week's episode of The Football Coaching Podcast takes a look at the questions your coaching staff needs to address to get ready. This is not about what's going to happen. None of us really know what is going to happen with COVID-19. It's actually about preparing your football program for what could happen this season.   What Could Happen This Season? There are multiple possibilities. Things could turn out pretty good (at least from a football standpoint). It could turn out very bad. This is not about any scientific or political beliefs you hold personally. It's about being prepared for very real possibilities. From state to state, we will all be dealing with different situations. We've already seen different plans within the same state, like California and Texas. To keep track of what's happening aroun

Coaching defensive line technique for young players can be frustrating. There's a world of bad habits and natural instincts you've got to break. During Season 7 of The Football Coaching Podcast we've looked at how to use some of the core principles from JDFB Coaching Systems to solve problems. Those core principles include shows on coaching using ASKA and pulling levers for constant improvement. Now it's time to apply those concepts to defensive line technique and solve those problems we see all the time with young defensive linemen learning the position. Top 5 Defensive Line Technique Issues Football is a complicated game. With JDFB I'm always working to simplify it for coaches. That will simplify the game for players. We're focusing on 5 big technique issues that Defensive Linemen at the High School level often have. 1. Staying Low: Every defensive line coach knows this one. We're constantly screaming about pad level. Low man wins! There's some critical levers to pull with your ASKA to solve this one. Hones

You can argue if it's the best, but the power blocking scheme is definitely one of the most used running plays in football today. On this episode of The Football Coaching Podcast, we're doing a deep dive into all the details of this great gap blocking scheme attack. Gap Blocking vs. Zone Blocking I'm biased. Power is a core run play in The Pistol Power Offense System. But the other primary blocking scheme is the zone run game. So we get started with a discussion about Gap Blocking vs Zone Blocking schemes. Inside Zone and Outside Zone runs are like pattern matching on defense. That means they take whatever you do on the other side of the ball and use it against you. There's nothing soft about zone blocking. But there is a somewhat passive nature about zone blocking. We're letting you make the decision on how we're going to beat you. With the Power blocking scheme, it's the opposite. This is a gap blocking play. The offensive line is going to create a seam where we want it, when we want it. Gap blocking schem

Helping Football Coaches build your Program and Succeed

Time to put the finishing touches on that defensive playbook to get ready for the upcoming season. How much do you need in it? The biggest problem many coordinators will run into this season is not going to be not having enough play calls. It’s going to be having a defensive playbook that is too big. And for no reason. When you’re using a Coach Simple approach, that defensive playbook needs to only include the calls you absolutely need. Especially with a shortened off-season. Check out this podcast to find out just how much you need in your defensive playbook this season.

Understanding horizontal and vertical seams is critical to your run fits on defense. Let’s take a deeper look at the concepts. This concept is a big one in run fits. Understanding horizontal and vertical seams, and how to pull the levers to fix those seams for your force defenders, is one of the fastest ways to improve your defense. Seams is a fancy word for run lanes… or run lanes is a fancy word for seams. They can happen horizontal to the line of scrimmage, or perpendicular to the line of scrimmage. But the issue remains, when you have seams in your defense, you create run lanes for the offense. In this episode we’ll explain what horizontal and vertical seams are, how they create run lanes, why they happen, and how to fix them. This is a critical episode if your defense has had trouble maintaining force on the perimeter. Show Links Pulling Levers for Constant Improvement: FBCP S07E06 Coaching the ASKA Principle: FBCP S07E03

What does it take to run a Championship caliber 4-3 Defense? Find out from Coach Dave Dugan.  Bishop-Fenwick High School in Massachusetts is a perennial title contender and their 4-3 Defense run by Defensive Coordinator Dave Dugan is a big contributor to that success. Coach Dugan joins The Football Coaching Podcast to talk about what’s worked in building his defensive attack. Find out how this brand of the 4-3 Defense teaches simple Linebacker reads and a pattern match Cover 2 coverage to shut down their opponents. Plus you’ll find out how you can prepare your team with a short off-season - because in Massachusetts they do it every year!  

Strength calls are important to get your best players in position to make the play. Here’s how to use them. There’s a reason defensive coaches make strength calls. But there’s a lot of thought that needs to go into those strength calls.  In this episode we’ll talk about how to make your strength calls fast, make them easy, and make them work for your defense. Because if they’re not helping your defense, they’re making your defense worse.

Do you have a plan for when your team gets to start practicing again? Here’s the Do’s and Don’ts. In some areas, coaches are getting to start working with their players again. In other areas, that time is still a long way off. But you need to have a plan.  I’ll share the 7 things you cannot do if you want to have success in the 2020 season when teams start getting back to work. Plus the plan for teams getting back to work in June, July, August and beyond.