Football coach

“ It is a well recognized fact that a coach is no better than his material. Therefore we must have the best material available in order to be a winner. I tell my coaches if they can recruit the best athletes to our school, then I can coach them. If they recruit mediocre athletes, then the assistants will have to coach them.
There are a number of qualifications that we look for in our athletes, and some of these are musts if the boys are to become champions. Football is nothing more than movement and contact. If a player has excellent movement but won’t make contact, he will never be a winner. ”

“ In order for the head coach to get the maximum from his assistants, he must set a good example. Since others will follow a leader who actually leads, rather than one who merely tells what to do, I believe a head coach must work longer, harder, and stay a jump ahead of his assistants and the other coaches in the profession. He must be dedicated to the game of football, well organized, sound in his thinking, and have the ability to delegate authority and responsibility to his assistants if he expects to build a successful program. ”

“ As head football coach, you must give leadership and direction to your program if you expect it to be successful. Therefore, you must have a definite plan in which you and your assistants believe. In order to build winners you cannot deviate from your plan, and there cannot be any compromises. ”

“ They don't bother telling you what to do and how to do it on a big football field. Mostly they tell you what to do and how you do it. And they do it artistically, too. They use plenty of language. A football coach is picked out for his ready tongue. He must be a conversationalist. He must be able to talk to a greenhorn, with fine shoulders and a needle-shaped head, until that greenhorn would pick up the ball and take it through a Sioux war dance to get away from the conversation. You can't reason with football men. They're not logical, most of them. ”

“ I am not saying that a coach should not try to win every game, because he obviously should strive to win ’em all. I merely want to point out the fact that without the security of a job for a period of years, he might be forced to revert to certain practices which he knows are not sound principles on which to build a winning program. ”

“ Unfortunately one team generally wins and the other loses, and if it is the latter it doesn’t make a coach’s job any easier. If you will look at the consistent winners, you will find behind them a group of coaches who are dedicated 100% to their work. ”

“ You can’t expect a man who is getting started in business to throw it up for two months to coach a football team. And you can’t expect a man who is getting twenty-five hundred or three thousand coaching some other team to leave his job and come here for a thousand. Unfortunately, Rowland, the fellows who would come for a thousand aren’t worth it. Good football players are plentiful, but good football coaches are as scarce as hens’ teeth. ”

“ It teaches the men quick starting and the use of their hands. It trains them to keep their eyes on the ball and impresses them with the fact that if they start before the ball is put in play, a penalty will follow. A fast charging line has its great value, and every coach is keen to have the forwards move fast to clear the way.
Then after the individual coaching is over, the team runs through signals, and the practice is on. Before very long the head coach announces that practice is over, and the trainer yells:
"Everybody in on the jump," and you soon find yourself back in the dressing room. ”

“ What better training for the game of life than the acid test of a championship game. Such a test comes not alone to the player but to the coach as well.
"What truer and finer friends can one have than those whom we have met through the medium of football! And finally as the years tend to narrow this precious list, through death, what greater privilege than to associate with the fellow whose muscles are lithe and whose mind is clean. Such a man was Francis H. Burr, captain of the Harvard team in 1908. ”

“ The first trait, “Be dedicated to the game of football,” is a must for all coaches, assistants as well as head coaches. Don’t ever try to fool yourself or anyone else. If you are not truly dedicated to your work, and you dread spending many hours every day working and planning on building a good football team, then you are in the wrong business. I’ll guarantee there is no easy way to develop a winning team. If it were an easy task, all of us would be undefeated and “Coach of the Year.” ”

“ The one principle never to be forgotten in portioning out the assistant's work is that no player shall have the style of his coaching changed during the season. The assistants should never be permitted to coach the regulars. One man ought to have complete charge of that, or, if a staff of coaches has the regular team in hand, then the work should be so divided that the man who coaches the forwards has entire charge of the linesmen; the head coach of the ends should be absolute in his position, and the opinion of the coach for the backs should be final in his department. ”

“ Personality counts in coaching. In addition to a coach's keen sense of football, there must be a strong personality around which the players may rally. All this inspires confidence.
It is a joy for a coach to work with good material—the real foundation of success. The rules of to-day, however, give what, under old standards, was the weaker team a much broader opportunity for victory over physically larger and stronger opponents. ”

“ We stress the point frequently that coaching is teaching of the highest degree, and a good coach is a good teacher. It is not what you and your assistants know about football that is going to win the games, but rather what you are able to teach your players. In order to give our coaches an opportunity to improve their coaching techniques, we have them get up at staff meetings and explain and demonstrate various points. The other coaches will pretend they do not understand the coach who has the floor, and he must explain and answer the questions to our satisfaction. ”

“ Teeny-bits followed directions and again and again came down upon the coach and the captain, remembering their instructions to shift, to use his straight arm, to dodge, to change his pace and to exercise every stratagem that differentiates the skilful back-field runner from the novice. He felt that he was learning real football and took each bit of advice that was offered with an intense concentration. ”

“ I am a firm believer in the old saying, “A head coach is no stronger than his assistant coaches.” In order for any head coach to have a good program he must surround himself with a staff of good assistant coaches. This does not mean that every coach must have six or eight assistants. In some cases the head coach may not have more than two or three assistants. ”

“ No greater honor can be accorded a football man than the invitation to come back to his Alma Mater and take charge of the football situation. Such a man has been selected after he has served efficiently at other institutions, for it takes long experience to become a great coach and there are very few men who have given up all their time to consecutive coaching.
Successful coaches, as a rule, are men who have a genius for it, and whose strong personalities bring out the natural ability of the men under them. Successful football is the result of a good system, plus good material. ”

“ There is nothing else I would rather see than when our boys are in their goal line defense, and they have supreme confidence they will keep the opposition from scoring. Every boy is taking it upon himself personally to do what is necessary to stop the ball carrier from scoring. When a coach has a team thinking [13] like this, he will have a winner, and the boys will be winners when they get out of school. ”

“ I remember that I had not seen a victory over Yale since I was graduated from college in 1879. Some of the suggestions that I made about the time men should be played were laughed at. The standpoint I took was that a man should not be allowed by the coach to play until he was deemed fit. ”

“ The coaching staff will meet together early Sunday morning and go over the film of Saturday’s game. While the assistant coaches are studying and grading the film, I will meet with the assistant coach who scouted the team we will be playing this coming Saturday. In addition to receiving a thorough scouting report from him, I want his recommendations offensively and defensively of what we should do against the opponent. The scout will then complete his report as he will present it to the squad members on Monday night. ”

“ It is important that you explain to them just what you are trying to accomplish, how long it will take, and why you are doing it in your particular manner. The administrators and the administration must understand the value the program has for each boy who participates, and the ways the program can benefit the entire school system. Therefore, before a coach accepts a particular position he should give considerable thought to the administration’s philosophy, attitude or point-of-view toward the football program. ”

“ I do not think it advisable for a head coach to do group work with one of his assistants. If an assistant is directing a group and the head man comes over to help out, he takes the lead away from the assistant. As a result the assistant coach is likely to lose his initiative—the very trait you want him to develop. ”

“ There is no game in which team work is more important than in football. Eleven boys of moderate ability and comparative light weight who can execute their plays with skill and precision can beat a team of heavier boys or superior players who may lack their skill and organization. In the case of a school team it is almost always possible to secure the services of a coach from among the graduates. If such a one has had experience on a college team so much the better. ”

“ It is not always the star player that makes the greatest coach. The mediocre man is quite likely to have absorbed as much football teaching ability as the star; and when his opportunity comes to coach, he sometimes gets more out of the men than the man with the big reputation. ”

“ It is virtually impossible for a quarterback to know and do everything correctly. However, a coach must work with his quarterback, and the individual must spend many additional hours studying and preparing himself so he will be able to handle any situation that arises. It is an absolute must for your quarterback to be well prepared if you expect to have a successful football team. If you are rebuilding a football team, it is very important for you to pick your quarterback first, find out what he can do well, and then build your offense around him. ”

“ But there are days nevertheless when every coach gets discouraged; times when there is no response from the men he is coaching—when their slowness of mind and body seem to justify [Pg 352] the despair of Charlie Daly who said to his team:
"You fellows are made of crockery from the neck down and ivory from the neck up."
Football is fickle. To-day you may be a hero. After the last game you may be carried off on the shoulders of enthusiastic admirers and dined and wined by hosts of friends ”

“ The importance of his work it is therefore impossible to overrate. He must be, above all the qualifications of brains and agility usually attributed to that position, of a hopeful or sanguine disposition. He must have confidence in his centre himself, and, most of all, in the man to whom he passes the ball. He should always believe that the play will be a success. The coach can choose no more helpful course during the first few days, [Pg 82] as far as the quarter is concerned, than that of persuading him to repose confidence in his men. Many promising half-backs are ruined by the quarter. ”

“ The head coach, a short but sturdy figure in worn-out trousers and faded purple shirt, stood on the edge of the cinder track and viewed the work with critical eye. When the ends had trotted back over the field with the ball to repeat the proceeding, he made himself heard:
"Spread out more, fellows, and don't all stand in a line across the field. You've got to learn now to judge kicks; you can't expect to always find yourself just under them. Fletcher, as soon as you've decided who is to take the ball yell out. ”

“ A coach goes to the blackboard and draws a diagram of a football field, along with the defenses we expect Georgia to use on the hash mark, in the middle of the field, on the goal line, and in a short yardage situation. On the board the coach will also list the backfield personnel, so the quarterback will have an opportunity to use his men properly. To digress for a second: the quarterback uses the wrong judgment if he calls for sweeps with a slow backfield, does not employ the best blocker to block, etc. The quarterback must know his offensive personnel thoroughly. ”

“ The third type of quarterback is the one every coach is seeking. He directs his team to maximum results. He is a student of the game. He is logical in his thinking, and bold in his action when necessary to win the football game. He is confident, which in turn gives his team confidence in him and the offense. He is a winner through preparation, and he will give you winners through his action and leadership. Unfortunately there are few such quarterbacks of this particular type. Consequently you must take what you have and develop what you’ve got. ”