My notes from Coach Butch Jones' presentation at the Glazier Clinic

I haven’t had much time the past couple days to write but I just wanted to take a second and get a post up before I leave for Chicago tomorrow. I wanted to give you guys some of the notes I took while listening to Coach Butch Jones of the University of Cincinnati.  Coach Jones was a great speaker and I really enjoyed hearing him at the Glazier Clinic in February. A lot of this was written in short hand but I will do my best to elaborate on the some of the points.  His presentation was over play calling and offensive strategy.

·        You must have confidence in your play call – Coach Jones really stressed having absolute confidence in your play call. This confidence is gained through knowing that you have properly installed all aspects of the play and through knowing that you are putting your best playmakers in position to effect the game.

·        REPS = Confidence ; The more time you spend perfecting a play through repetition, the more confidence you and your players have that the play will work.  Repping fewer plays to perfection and consistency is much more productive then repping tons of plays and never perfecting any of them.

·        Call plays that your players are confident about as well

·        Think PLAYERS not plays – get the ball in the hands of your best playmakers, it’s as simple as that.  Equal distribution of the ball should not be on your agenda as a play caller.  The guys that can potentially have the most positive effect on the game for your offense are the guys that should touch the ball the most, period.  Create plays that get the ball in the hands of your playmakers!

·        Always give feedback while teaching.  I have stated this point as well in some of my posts, I rarely allow a player to go through a rep without providing some type of criticism.  Any feedback is good feedback if it is coming from a knowledgeable place.

Here are some points he made regarding offensive strategy:

·        BALL SECURITY is always #1 on the agenda.  You must constantly instill this idea into your players’ minds.

·        Always think TD’s in the red zone.  It should be your mentality as a coach that every time your team is in the red zone it’s going to be for six.  You should have a small number of plays that you are extremely confident in for red zone situations. 

·        Win 1^st down! Statistics show that winning 1^st down is an unbelievable advantage to the offense.

·        QB should know the play callers purpose for the plays being called.  You QB must have the most in-depth understanding of your offensive strategy.  He should understand and recognize why plays are being called and what the goal behind each in-game situation is. 

·        PLAY FAST – we hear this all the time as coaches of the spread offense but Coach Jones says that when you think you’re playing fast enough, play faster.  But you can’t play fast if you don’t practice fast.  TEMPO means EVERYTHING in practice!

·        Formations not plays – he talked about how you should use less plays but more formations.  Get extremely good at a few plays and run them from a variety of formations.  He says this combined with playing extremely fast should equal an unstoppable offense at the high school level. 

·        First off the ground rule -Install the concept that your players should be the first one up off the ground after every play and the ball carrier should always immediately hand the ball to the referee.  Both of these ideas increase tempo and force the defense to line up faster.