Jim Woods, M.Ed

More Random Musings on Football

Thu, 7 Jan 2010 15:53:46 -0600

1. Have you ever noticed how high school football teams primarily defense their opponents offense as if they were playing themselves? Crazy? While a variation of the spread offense and a more sophisticated passing game is trickling down to the high school level, most high school coaches either do not know how to scheme a passing game or they simply do not have the athletes who can throw and catch a ball.
If one is certain the other team is ineffective throwing and catching the football, their is no need for two safeties. And, if the opponent has a potent running game, there is no need for two safeties. That is when six to eight defenders and multiple alignments and blitz schemes seems common sense. One week the Louisburg Cats get three first downs when their opponent puts eight defenders "in the box" and blitzes. Their single safety was no more than 6-7 yards off the line of scrimmage.
The following week, a good, formidable 4A team shows up with a current traditional 4-3 alignment and two safeties 8 yards off the line of scrimmage. The Cats beat them rather easily. Did that opponent’s coach not watch the film of the previous week or, when scouting Louisburg, not see the Cats were not going to beat them passing? Go figure; The 4A State Championship game a couple years ago was a example of a coach recognizing this drill. Louisburg was facing Andale, and had thrown eight balls a game throughout the season . . . hardly considered a passing team. Andale’s coach decided that the if the Wildcats were to defeat his team, it would not be by running the ball. His defensive scheme was just that, stop the Cats ground attack. He was right, Andale won!

2. Another moronic coaching approach surfaced this week, i.e. Mike Leach at Texas Tech secluding a player in a dark shed or closet with a trainer "guarding" the door! Apparently the player was diagnosed with a concussion [by a physician] and had an elevated heart rate. It seems the coaches didn't think so, and even though the player was not an integral part of this year’s team, they decided a punishment was in order. The real "kicker" was after being suspended by the University, Leach decides to sue his employer with a restraining order so he can coach his team in a bowl game. The University of course fires him! What an idiot! Mike Leach will have a harder time finding another coaching job as opposed to Mangino and a few other football coaches who have been fired for misbehaving in one way or another.

3. NCAA Division I football is "out of control". I have addressed this issue before from different perspectives. However there is a "law of nature" it's a fact and it is guaranteed. When human behavior corrupts itself, there comes a "tipping point" often from some obscure direction that causes that behavior endeavor to implode. From a historical perspective these "tipping points" seem to be escalating in speed. The IT breakdown in the early to mid nineties, the sub-prime mortgage breakdown in the early to mid 2000's. The grid-lock in Washington congressional and senatorial behavior [that tipping point has not been reached yet, but it will!] The once richest country in the world with a second class medical delivery system [that tipping point has been reached]. As always the change, outcome takes some time to get traction.
For big time college football, the tipping point is near. I believe the announcers on a recent bowl game stated "that only 20+ NCAA D-1 schools [there are over 100] could financially carry the money investment to be or stay competitive. How does that going to work? The tipping point can't be many years off!

4. Back to a simpler issues. Football games are played in the fall and from the beginning into more severe weather conditions there frequently is an unruly wind to deal with. When a team wins the coin toss at the beginning of the game, why don't more teams defer so they can make sure they have the wind at their back in the fourth quarter. "Nerves" at the start of the game can interfere with the execution of an offense, but more importantly frequently field position and the necessity to pass becomes extremely important in the fourth quarter.
Winning the coin toss and getting the ball first most often does not decide the outcome of the game. A favorable wind can be a big asset if the team needs to score or stop the other team from scoring and my guess is more important deciding the outcome than getting the ball first. Coaching a 12 year old youth football team a few years ago, I always deferred if my team won the coin toss. 12 year olds are going to be anxious early [not good for an offense] and I had a kid that could pass and a couple that could catch if I needed to move the ball in chunks. Plus, we never lost or barely gained yardage if we had to punt. The other team did. Field position!

5. Let's talk speed, my favorite characteristic in an athlete or team. As I have pointed out before, coaches at all levels do not understand NEUROmuscular. If the neurology of muscle movement is not understood then the coach or his strength and conditioning staff will be lost in designing a training program to increase an athletes or team speed. And I am not talking just linear, straight-a-head speed. Lets look at how most coaches approach the lunge, either as a conditioning exercise or warm-up prior to competition. In neuromuscular, training with slow movements means just that, conditioning the athletes neuromuscular system to be slow, a slower athlete or team. The solution is simple.
Coaches love squats. The bigger number they can post for their athletes gets their juices moving. Now the problem for those misplaced juices! For speed "equal time and work" training and conditioning the hamstrings, glutes and lower back, the spinea erectors is critical for major increases in speed, particularly top-end, optimum speed. The muscular connection consisting of the hamstrings, glutes and spinea erectors, with emphasis on the hamstrings are referred to as the "Sprinting Engine"! Back hyper-extensions are not the appropriate training. The training fulcrum must be the knee to focus on the hamstrings. The solution is simple.

Unless something goofy happens in the remaining bowl games and play-offs for the Super Bowl, Bright Lights will turn it's attention to other sports and events/issues surround those sports.

Random Football Musings

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 21:34:23 -0600

1. Have you ever wondered why football coaches "jog" football players. Are they out for cross-country? Perhaps the last book on cardio-conditioning they read was Aerobics by Dr. Cooper written in 1969. The basic theme was you must run longer distances at slower speeds to get in competitive cardiovascular condition. Dr. Cooper was a cardiologist, famous now for the Cooper Clinic in Dallas. He did outstanding, lifestyle altering work. However he was not a neurologist or a physiologist. Most sports are stop-go-stop-change direction-go etc., some with short rest periods in between exertion. Then why not train the athletes for cardio-conditioning the same. The neuromuscular system parallels and adapts with the type of running or weight resistance training. Jog slow, react slow!

2. Based on how most coaches and trainers, in all sports, condition their athletes they are clueless about the NEURO in neurophysiology, the essence of speed, quickness and power as well as invaluable for cardio-conditioning, agility and strength. More on this issue later.

3. Mac Brown of Texas picked up an extra 2 million dollars by one of his players getting a field goal within 2-3 feet of the goal post. I don't know of a professional golfer who made 2 million when he sank a 2-3 foot putt. Coaches work their butts off, but the system is screwed up. In ten years will the Texas student say they attend Longhorn University. I am not picking on Texas, Alabama or Florida, but the hours the players put in, 3-5 hours per day, nearly 48 weeks a year [with travel and games] that is in excess of 1200 hours a year. Most D-1 Universities cost $23-28000 a year, minimum. If the athlete is on a full-ride, I suppose $23.00 an hour is decent wages. But, when the athlete drops down to D-1AA, D-II, D-III, or NAIA that per hour pay looks more like minimum wage or less for most athletes.

4. Ever wonder why a coach with a right handed quarterback, on passing plays rolls the quarterback left. Try running to your left at near full speed, square up your shoulders and drive off your right foot and make a high velocity, accurate throw and catch. Does the same play not work going to the right?

5. When a player is injured on the field, any sport, who is qualified to determine the extent of the injury, at that moment, including an orthopedic surgeon? Certainly not the coaches, most all trainers, physicians or chiropractors. If there is a bone sticking out of an extremity or the players paralyzed or unconscious, a 12 year old can tell if a player is hurt. That is why there are X-ray and MRI machines. I had a school administrator tell me that one of his coaches made a qualified assessment [bull] and determined that the injury was not that serious! Really!

6. Poor Mangino. I'm serious? What did he do that is so uncommon in coaching what I call a "Warrior Sport". Bill Snyder and Bob Stoops, both making 4K a year did not observe Mangino's coaching behavior out of the normal when he was on their staffs. I can guarantee their were thousands of coaches "ducking under the radar" if yelling, abusive or profane language will get them fired. Losing games or under performing football teams is what get you fired. The rest of the Mangino saga is bogus. Take the money and get out of Kansas. Of course there are mean spirited coaches, managers, administrators, teachers, bosses. I wished it wasn't that way.

7. Speaking of coaches, particularly the ones that are always losing their games or can't develop a program. If what you see in public, i.e. their teams performing poorly, transparently questionable player decisions and lethargic, undisciplined players, count on their classroom conduct and instruction looking exactly the same. While most educators would like you to believe differently, it doesn't compute. Poor coaching, superior teaching knowledge and skills. Nonsense!

8. First Urban Meyer, Head Football Coach of last years National Champions was quoted as saying, "He wants the fastest team on the field"! Now new Kansas Football Coach Turner Gill and his highly respected defensive coordinator say, "They recruit speed, they want fast players". When are the high school coaches, strength and conditioning "experts" going to get it? Speed wins. Naturally the athlete has to have the physical profile of the position he plays or predicts him to play, but if they can't run they can't play. That is the slogan that should be in bold letters in every weight room in the country, "IF YOU CAN'T RUN, YOU CAN' PLAY". Now that presents a conundrum for most coaches. Their mind set is "big and strong", how much can they squat, bench or power-clean? It is a contradiction to speed wins! They believe if the athletes get stronger they can run faster. Wrong!
Several years ago, an athlete was chosen the "Lifter of the Year" for either or both making every weight training session or having the best strength gains in what ever lifts the coaches were measuring. This was a good football player [running back]. I had timed him in late May at 4.6 in the forty yard dash. Not particularly fast for college ball. At the end of the schools summer organized strength and conditioning program, I watched him struggle to run 4.6. He was an All-State running back and chosen to play in a couple All-Star games. Problem! No D-II school or above offered him a Diet Coke. Speed....he could not test out fast enough for a D-II school or above, regardless of the fact he was an excellent running back. He was a walk-on.
Training for speed and power is not Power Lifting or traditional strength training. Here is where NEURO surfaces. If a coach does not understand neuromuscular impulse rates, muscle motor unit firing rates and muscle fiber contraction rates, they are lost when it comes to designing a program to increase the speed of an athlete or their team. Train for speed first and power and strength will come with it!

All-Everything teams examined

Mon, 7 Dec 2009 23:51:13 -0600

Now is the time of the year for sports fans to see who has been selected All-Americans, All-State, All-League or All-Star players. The process is as old organized sports. It is a fun past time as much as it is pure folly.
Regardless of how the selection process is structured or who is doing the voting/selection, it is an "ego moment" for those selected and a disappointment for those who feel or are actually overlooked. And you can count on favoritism, bias and politics in the process. The folly is, what ever the sport, the coaches and players should know instinctively who are the "players" and who are not. However it is like arguing religion or politics, once people make up their minds, it is opinions not facts that prevail. It's okay, that's human nature, but the "All-What Ever" selections should not be taken too seriously. In fact, perhaps half the time, however the selection process takes place, they do not get it right!
Take the NFL draft,hundreds of thousands of dollars are invested attempting to determine which player is better than another, at each position, and they have a helluva time getting it right. When the final rosters are made, each team it is quite likely we have 6-10 new athletes, who we have never heard of, who the "professionals" expect to win with. And there is pressure in the selection process. They don't win and they don't work! Like evaluating athletes, only a few are clever enough in determining who we really are or what we are capable of doing regardless how many tests are administrated.
Take the Frontier League selections this year or any year for that matter. They did get it right on Louisburg's Tyler Ewy. There was not another offensive or defensive lineman at his level of play in this years League.
Miege's 6'4", 240lb Neil Shortell played at his level but he is not in the Frontier League and is a senior while Tyler is a junior. Both are NCAA D-1 prospects. On the other hand, there is no way Eudora's quarterback Even Cleveland is near the level of skill and ability as Gardner's Bubba Starling. Each were certainly the most valuable to their respective teams, but certainly not equal in talent. So who ever or however the selections were made, they both can't be 1st team selections. This illustration of the folly of the selection process would seem to apply to the remaining All-league selections. To make All-League recognition, players at this high school level must be "difference makers", and some did not get the attention they deserved. For Louisburg, there were three other difference makers, two noticed and one overlooked. Some who got recognition were capable at any time of getting us beat!
I wish I could just set back and enjoy the games and socialize with the fans. Most everyone seems to be having a good time, of course unless their team is losing. But as a former college football coach and recruiting coordinator, I can't get out of the habit of watching the games and see "who jumps out" as having the possibility of playing up out of high school. I can't get out of the process of the Head Coaches playing chess with their X's and 0's, but I am wrong at least half the time so I am getting over that habit. But talent is talent and determining if and at what level the players are capable of 'playing up" still intrigues me.
NCAA D-1 and D-II coaches don't usually roam the sidelines and practices of Kansas Class 4A or below. Typically due to the level of competition and coaching. There are a few outstanding coaches but very limited athletes that can easily transition into D-1or D-1AA programs particularly in states with small populations and no high school spring football. Plus our Head Coaches have limited help. However, I noticed Miege had 13 assistant coaches and Gardner has 11. As an absurd example, this fall I was watching Florida play somebody and the announcers indicated that Florida had recruited seven seniors from one northwest Miami high school. Populations and high school spring football! Mac Brown at Texas says he doesn't recruit, he just choses. Based on Saturday nights game, he had better do a little better choosing. The State of Nebraska produces possibly 8-10 transparently NCAA-D-1 players a year and they physically punished Texas. Naturally like KU and
K-State, they have to recruit out-of-state to be competitive. But it can be done.
To my knowledge, Brody Eldrige from Prairie View and Ottawa's Blaksley at KU are currently they only Frontier League players at the D-1 level. I have no idea how Oklahoma found Brody [by the way he was an Oklahoma team captain this year]. However, in high school he was 6'4", 220 lbs and could run near or under 11 seconds in the 100 meters. Speed and size, in that order, are the first two profiles a recruiter looks for. Naturally they have to have the talent to play their position or another projected position. I presume Blaksley had speed. He threw the high school shot put 63'.
Secondly, is the athlete a difference maker. Is he around the ball or in the pile, side line to side line. The skill guys like Miege's Justin McCay, 6', 4", 200 lbs and lightning fast and Gardner's 6'2". 201 lb Justin Berry, also with terrific speed are transparently at a different level. The big guys up front [260 lbs and above have got to be able to move, speed, to attract attention, plus possess 'a motor", going full out every play.] Naturally these players and that talent are rare. Many Frontier players can find a level of college/university where they can play and enjoy the game. Recently Louisburg has had many football players "play up" in Junior College, NAIA and NCAA D-II.
Some could have been predicted to do so and some not. Harrison Kush was an a Junior College All-American and NCAA-D-II Honorable Mention All-American who came out of high school running a 4.65 40 yd dash. Not fast enough. However after training for speed over two summers, he ran 4.38 which put him in that D-1 class. Dan Hickman was recently selected the Offensive Lineman of the Year in the Great Lakes Conference, playing for Missouri-Rolla, NCAA D-II. At 275 lbs out of high school he could run a 5.7 40 yard dash. Too slow. After a redshirt year at Coffeyville, two summer speed training cycles, at 295 he can run a 5.1 40 yard dash. Good enough for D-1. For our kids,if they want to play up, they have got to to have speed, no matter what their position.

Mark Mangino Coaching Style

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 09:43:58 -0600

The current flap surrounding Mark Mangino’s coaching style at the University of Kansas is as old as the game of football itself. There are thousands of football coaches currently “ducking” to stay off the radar screen so not to be identified with Mangino’s alleged behavior and how they treat their athletes when coaching.
Warrior sports like football, hockey, boxing, wrestling, etc. demand a physicality that breeds the notion of being mentally and physically tough which is not natural to most young men and women. Some easily adapt to these increased demands while others find those environments not to their liking. Both are okay and as the athletes evolve through little league, middle school and high school, they sort out what is best for them. It may be they are just as “tough” as those in warrior sports but their bodies, skills and talents are better suited to another sport.
Many years ago I was coaching college football during the period of the coaching “appropriateness” of football coaches Woody Hayes at Ohio State and Frank Kush at Arizona State. Both eventually were fired for their “brand of toughness” as being over the top. It was! Most players, coaches and fans today are perhaps more familiar with Bill Parcell’s football coaching career and basketball’s Bobby Knight basketball coaching career at Indiana University and Texas Tech, which received a lot of media scrutiny.
Like it or not, yelling at players and profanity are part of athletic coaching. If the athlete or parents find that so offensive, they best find another hobby. They will have to look long and far to find a coach who doesn’t yell and occasionally use profanity to get their point across. Some may think that in itself is abusive but that has been the norm for decades. Extreme discipline and focus are essential in successful sports programs but are not common in most of our everyday lives. If you wish to participate in one of theses sports, get use to it! I learned it early from Parcell’s himself who was my football coach my senior year in college. He had high expectations and a short fuse which has not changed from day one.
There is a “gray area” when the yelling and profanity crosses a proverbial “line in the sand”! This hypothetical “line in the sand” is not the same in each athletic sport or program or for each individual coach. There is going to be critical remarks and harsh treatment when a player does not do what he has been taught to do or does not respect the standards and rules that have been put in place by their coaches. Not being aware of what to do after being thoroughly taught or not understanding the standards and rules that have been carefully explained is not an option!
That being said, there is no grey area or line in the sand when a coach “gets personal” disrespecting players, assistant coaches or fans with mean spirited and demeaning comments that diminish a persons being, self worth and esteem. The coach must keep the yelling, criticism or profanity to the process of teaching what they expect and the player’s execution of those expectations. Comments or an action towards a player that gets personal is abusive, over the top and unacceptable. That is not too much to expect from coaches. I call it punitive coaching in which the coach is typically a bully. Unfortunately that exists more than one thinks!
I do not know what to make of the Mangino situation. I doubt he will make the cut as the Head Football Coach at Kansas. But, he has been an assistant coach to Bill Snyder and Bob Stoops who are not critical of his coaching style when he was on their staffs. He obviously has talent but also some personal issues. Coaching is highly stressful and hard work! Attempting to do it weighing 450-500 pounds can’t be good for him. Morbid obesity is the number one cause of premature death from a variety of diseases. He would benefit by taking some time off, get medical treatment, perhaps a stomach staple, before he drops dead and creates a lot premature grief and sadness for his family, friends and players.

Life’s not alway fair in Class 4A football!

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 06:45:57 -0600

Louisburg players, coaches, parents and fans should take time to enjoy this football season. Unfortunately the “winning is everything” cultural mind-set distracts us from the positive, whether it be sports, business, politics or education. Plus it breeds corruption. Winning frequently is never as enjoyable as anticipated nor certainly as important as the process. We learn more in preparation and adversity than we do when we succeed or come out on top.
Let’s keep it simple, talk sports, football and specifically Friday night’s loss to Bishop Miege. Life is not fair! The inequities and disparity in the talent, coaching and quality of Kansas 4A football teams is one of those situations. The old Frontier League is a good example. In football it was a 2-3 team league with 6 other schools attempting to compete. Three of those schools never stood a chance while who knows why the other three could not field a competitive team year in and year out. I never enjoyed watching those games.
If you are a competitive athlete, blowing out another team is no fun and if you are a member of the team getting blow out, it is miserable. I have experienced both, and no body wins in those situations. Nothing makes a player a better athlete or person on either team. There is nothing genuinely positive for the coaches, parents or fans to take away from that experience. And, if the team can never compete year after year, the athletes, coaches, parents and fans can grow too loath the sport [Ottawa].
When I participated in high school and college, the anticipated, evenly matched slugfest is what got the juices going, knowing there would be momentum changes and close scores. All week there was more excitement, focus and tension in the air. I like the Blue Springs/Rockhurst and Blue Valley/Blue Valley Northwest type games. Blue Springs kicks a field goal in the last minute to beat Rockhurst and advance. I bet Coaches Severino and Donohoe, although emotionally spent, loved the coaching chess match. Blue Valley, not expected to prevail, edging Blue Valley Northwest with a fourth quarter pass and touchdown. Long time Blue Valley Coach Steve Rampy until recent years rarely passed! When the playing field is even, tough competition provides an opportunity or indeed forces coaches and players to evolve, grow and get better.
One of my former coaches with long time success says, “If you want to get the most out of people, you have to apply pressure….that’s the only thing that any of us really responds to”. I suppose that is true in training for war when lives are at stake or a warrior sport, where you are expected to win or suffer job security and public admonishment.
Occasionally before Louisburg games, if it appears to be a tough opponent, during pre-game I like to walk down to the opponent’s end of the field and watch their warm up. Friday night against Miege was one of those times. I especially watch the line drills because the skill players are usually already identified or are easy to pick out. The speed, quickness and techniques of the entire Miege line group were at a different level than we are accustomed to in our League and Class 4A. Miege playing a season against tougher competition [Baldwin excluded] does that to a team. Having 13 assistant coaches, a couple with professional playing experience to see that it gets done is also an advantage. And I doubt Coach Grunhard teaches any classes.
Private schools have the advantage of attracting [recruiting] “special students”! If money for tuition is an issue, it can be easily solved [the Rush’s at Pembrooke and the Releford’s at Miege]. If it can’t, somebody’s not paying attention. And they can control their enrollment [Hayden] and play down a class if they want to dominate in sports.
So what is the point? Life is not fair! When Louisburg and Paola beat up on the smaller league schools, remember how it feels when Gardner-Edgerton and Bishop Miege blow us off the field. And don’t take our winning percentages of the football teams and coaches that seriously [I think it is 70% in Paola]. For years the playing field has not been even!