Untitled - Fast and Furious Football
Untitled - Fast and Furious Football
Untitled - Fast and Furious Football
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
PHILOSOPIIY, MOTIVATION, AND MANAGEMENT 19<br />
| 1 a C * i g $ I !. i i I i i I g | : t t: ii 11 i ;, i ; : , | : i 2<br />
Getting Your Team Ready to Play<br />
KEN HATFIELD<br />
{F*{ti,ri ii !,] i, ,q',Q rs il;ill t<br />
Back in 1982 at the Air Force Acad€my, a week<br />
after w€U defeated Bdgham Young, 39-38, we<br />
werc plalns Colorado State with a chance to win<br />
o11I very fiIstWesternAthletic Confercnce championship.<br />
It was an excitins same--one in which<br />
we had 19 plays of10-plu3 yards on off€nse-but<br />
we lost becauBe we turned it over six times.<br />
As I iooked at the film after that game <strong>and</strong><br />
saw that on many of the turnovers we just<br />
dropped Ihe ball <strong>and</strong> reclll wprpnl erer hrr.I<br />
started to question my own coaching abjlity <strong>and</strong><br />
wh€ther I was overcoaching people. The week of<br />
thatgame, because itmeant so much,I'dbeenup<br />
twice at 3:30 in the morning, irying to get a little<br />
exha film work just to b€ sure we had the dght<br />
game plan.<br />
Obviously, it didn't work. And I renember say<br />
ing after that ballgame that llom now on, what<br />
ever happens, our t€am will be mentally <strong>and</strong><br />
physically fresh at kickoff.<br />
So we changed our philosophy, cuttins back on<br />
plactice. No drills on Monday, no drills on Friday,<br />
<strong>and</strong> no meetings on Sunday. It really paid<br />
offfor us, as we won 18 olour next 21 games.<br />
The second lesson came while playing the Univeruity<br />
of Hawaii in a bis game, also in '82. We<br />
ran our basic triple option play.<br />
As the quarterback read the tackle, who happened<br />
to loop out, he h<strong>and</strong>ed the ball off to our<br />
fullback. The defense did an echo stunt <strong>and</strong> th€<br />
end fold€d back inside to try to tackle the fullback.<br />
Off tough, short fullback lowered his shoulder<br />
<strong>and</strong> knocked the defensiv€ €nd down. As soon<br />
as that happened, the o{Tside linebacker was coming<br />
across <strong>and</strong> hit oul fullback as hard as he could,<br />
but our fullback kept bis feet cbuming <strong>and</strong><br />
knocked him down, <strong>and</strong> then about 5 yards later<br />
met their free safety head-on in the open field.<br />
TheFB knocked hiin down too <strong>and</strong> went 44 yards<br />
for a touchdown.<br />
As I stood on th€ sideline <strong>and</strong> looked at my<br />
assistant, Fisher DeBerrja I thought about how<br />
the d€fens€ had read the play conectly, but our<br />
tullback had just run over three people. I said,<br />
"Footbal playeN win sames, not footbal plays."<br />
A fr€sh football player, who is eager <strong>and</strong> antici'<br />
pates the game on Satwday, will play harder <strong>and</strong><br />
make morc big things happen than if he works<br />
on a play 15 to 20 extra times, <strong>and</strong> winds up being<br />
too tired before kickoff.<br />
Along with those two l€ssons be fresh at kickoff<br />
<strong>and</strong> football players win games, not football<br />
plays w" try to makF sure our players anjoy<br />
playing the game, that it's frm for them. <strong>Football</strong><br />
is a fun sport, <strong>and</strong> the th ll ofcompetition has to<br />
be enjoyable each <strong>and</strong> eve4' day. Il they look forward<br />
to playing the ballsame, then they willplay<br />
their hearts out, <strong>and</strong> that's all you can ask, come<br />
Saturday.<br />
Free Day<br />
I am indebted to a high school coach-Tom Grani<br />
ofJa€ksonville Wolfson Hish School in Jacksonville,<br />
Flodda-for something he taught me, <strong>and</strong><br />
that'E to give players som€ time to themselv€s<br />
during thF season. AJt ar T talked loTom onp sprinC<br />
during recruiting, I came back <strong>and</strong> told our<br />
coaches ftom then on we would not meet with our<br />
playeB on Sunday.<br />
Well, you can imasin€ the rebellion that<br />
bmught about. But I said th€s€ kids need some<br />
fre€ time to themselves; they need some tima to<br />
make their decisions, to sleep, to go to church,<br />
<strong>and</strong>just r€la-\ on Sunday if they want to. W€ instituted<br />
the program <strong>and</strong> have continu€d it, <strong>and</strong><br />
it has been the No. l best thing that we have dono.<br />
It allows the player a chance now to sleep, to<br />
go to churcb, to watch pro football, to study, or do<br />
really wbatever he wants to on a Sunday, <strong>and</strong><br />
have one tull day where he doesn't see any ofhis<br />
coaches. We find that by Monday, he is really ea<br />
ger <strong>and</strong> ready to learn everFhingthat he should<br />
have leamed in the game the previous week, <strong>and</strong><br />
he is rcady to go on from there.<br />
The second benefit we've found is that now the<br />
assisranr .oachcs don t hav' ro rush rhrough Fver)'thing<br />
they're doine on Sunday. We no lonser<br />
have to hurry <strong>and</strong> grade 1.he film before the players<br />
come in, or hurry to make corections or
Change language