Untitled - Fast and Furious Football

186 FOOTBALL COACHING STRATEGIES
telling those coaches out in the audience how he'd
won a game. He f€lt he'd won it because of his
organization, because he cloBed every offensive
pmctice session with a play that he'd rr]n if it
were fourth down and 25 from his own 3o-yard
line with 30 seconds left on the clock.
How many olyou coaches work on that play
That is not a real good situation tobe in ifyou're
trailing But he works on it. It's a special play
where h€ puts three wide receivers out on one
side and puts this euy (Jerry) Rice out on the oth€r
by himself.
If they cover these three receivers ov€r here
and leave on€ guy on Rice, they'rc gonna throw
the ball to Rice. Walsh worked on that. Th€y got
into a game that year in which a very similar situation
occurred, and he told the guys to run that
pals plal,.
And all the guys said, "Hell's fire, we practrce
thiB. We've got a shot. We might possibly hit this
play becaus€ we work on it." And damned il the
guy didn't go back therc alld throw th€ ball to
Rice on a sheak mute for a touchdown and they
Now that isn't gonna happen all the time, but
it damned sure never would have happened had
he not practiced that situation. You must anticipaie
and organize and practice every single thing
that possibly could happen in a game.
Mastery ol the Basica
The second thing to do is master the basics, the
balic fundarDentals ofblocking and tackling, and
you teach 'em with great enthusiasm. The greatest
teacher I have ever been arcund in college
football by far, no one has ever compared-was
Woody Hayes.
Woody Hayes was the advocate of the old fullback
off-tackle play A11 old coaches knew Woody
was gonna run 26. He had all kinds of blocking
adjustments up there to do it. I coached with him
lbr6years. For6 springs and 6 falls, as we put in
the ofTense on the first day, the old man would go
to the board a nd. as if ir wab t hc greatpsr invpntion
in fbotbau, he would describe to the staffthe
26 play.
Bccausp he raught ir $irh such cnthusiasm,
you sat there and watched every move and you
learn€d something diferent----€very time. Maybe
it wasjust a slight lateml step of the fullback, or
maybe you were really gonna change the play and
hav€ a new blocking adjustment rp front.
When he took that play to the players, he
taught it with great enthusiasm. Whenthe players
were in the huddle in a game and the play
came in and it was 26, there wasnt a damned
one of 'em and you can talk to any guy who
play€d Ohio State football-who didn't feel they
were gonna gain yardag€, because he had sold
those men that no one can stop 26.
To me, that's important ilyou want to \a.in-if
the play's sound and you teach it that way. It
would have been easy for him to say, "OK, we're
gonna run 26. You all know how to run it." No!
That isn't the way Woody put it in. He prt it in so
everyone would think, "This is the greatest thing
we could do.'
Motivation and Courage
The next thing you've got to do to be successful is
be willing to work. There's no substitut€ for hard
work. There s no subst ir urF for carcful planning.
There's no substitute for putting in the time.
Motivationl You must have your heart in your
work so you can motivate others your coaching
colleagues and the players on youi team. You must
set goals. Any t€arn that s not a goal-oriented team
is not going to have much chance at success.
There's no substitute for hard work. I admire
coaches who are willing to put in the time. It's
not a pad-time job. Even though you may have
other responsibilities to your school, as I have to
mine, coaching football is afull-timejob, and you
don't punch a time clock to do it.
In order to win, everybody on the staff must
undemtand that hisjob is important. One ofmy
pet peeves is the assistant coach who is always
looking for the big break or the n€xt job or the
next head coaching job.
Anybody who wants to become succ€ssful in
football should become the greatest coach, at
whatever rcsponsibility he has, andhe should be
happy doing it! I can say to you in all sinceritt I
never had a bad job. I never had a job I didn't
lik€, whether I was a graduate assiBtant, or coa€h,
ing the guads or tackles or center, or whatever
it might be.
I talked about discipline and the importance
ofit.I want teams with great courage, t€ams that
are able to play under great pressure. That s important-
There's pressure in Michigan football.
There's pressure in your place. If you've ever
taken a teenage kid and run him out in front of
105,000 people and say, "We want to win . . ."
That's pressure. That takes coulage. Football
teaches that. And when it's done properly, it's a
great teaching aid lor these kids, because later