When I first became an offensive coordinator, one of the biggest challenges I faced had nothing to do with which personnel I wanted to use, what plays I would call, or even what the opponent looked like. Rather, it was the format I was going to use for my Game Call Sheet. This may not have been a big deal for some, but my “grooming” for this position was not from coaches that liked to organize their calls into the way I thought they should be or in a way in which I understood it. When I was at Valparaiso University under Tom Horne he called the plays based on feel (like a lot of offensive geniuses do). At Loras College under Bob Bierie, he had been coaching for so long that all he needed was a sheet of paper with the list of plays on it. Neither of these formats did a lot of good for a first-time play-caller like myself.
So the first thing I did was call everyone I knew and began collecting as many different forms as I could get my hands on and I’d like to thank all of those coaches that helped me out. It is amazing to see how many different ways there are to skin a cat. Rarely did I ever find two forms exactly alike, and in most cases, they weren’t even close. So where I started with nothing, I now had an over-abundance of information to sort through.
To get what I wanted, I had to figure out what I wanted. That is, what information would I use on Saturday afternoon. Once I figured that part out, now I had to simply decide on the style I liked best. I had a lot of fun with it and really tried to make it my own. The sheet I use today is not much different from the one I started with, except for one major item – my current Call Sheet has less on it. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve become more detailed in the situations which have allowed me to cut a lot of the fluff out of the call sheet that I would never get an opportunity to use.
To begin, I break my Call Sheet up by sides. I use a legal sheet of paper and print on both sides. On the front side is my base side. It has our run plays listed by personnel/formation and pass plays by concept. Also, on the front side of the script are my openers, defensive personnel, time out chart, and game notes. I color code everything to help separate categories.
On the back side of the Game Call Sheet are all of the situations we can face within the game. Each side has four columns. In the first column I put all of my non-base down and distance calls (third downs, 2nd & short/XL, 1st & short/XL). The second column has my 4th downs, coming out calls, and sudden change shots, as well as a match-up column that I use to get a certain player the ball if I he hasn’t had enough touches. The third column is my score column – pre-red zone shots, red zone calls, goal line calls, and final plays. At the very bottom of the second and third column I place a kneel chart and a maximum clock chart. The fourth column has my two-minute calls and a 2-point conversion chart. All of the columns are divided in half so I can list each play from the left and right hashes. If anyone has other formats that you’d feel would help, feel free to send them to me and I would be happy to post those as well.
