The following article was written by David Buchanan, a high school head coach for over 25 years and a frequent contributor to AFM. This excerpt is from his book, ‘Black Shoes and White Shoestrings.’ You can reach Coach Buchanan at his email –
David.buchanan@mercer.kyschools
We had our first day of spring football today and it was a very good start. For the first time, I am not coaching a position. I will continue to call the offense. But, with Trosper, my son, on the way as a QB, I don’t need to be his position coach. And, we have a highly qualified, former college QB and former HS head coach on staff in Graham Heasley who is doing a great job with that position. Practice flowed much smoother without me worrying about coaching the QBs. It also freed me up to interact with all positions, coaches, and kids. I really liked that part the best. When I coached the QBs, I didn’t have that opportunity.
Our incoming freshmen are not allowed to practice with us, but we let them wear sweats and watch. When we can make a coach available, we send them as a group with that coach. Today our incoming frosh were able to run the ropes, use the tackling ring, work on a base block on the 2-man sled, do footwork with bags, work tackling with the tackling dummy, and get some basic installation done in our passing game.
When we worked punt protection, we pulled our starting QB and four receivers to work some of our basic routes. Ball placement is a major point of emphasis for this spring. And, it is not just on the QB. Our route running must improve and become more consistent. Our protection must improve as well.
Coach Brian Rowland, our LB coach and DC continues to be more creative in his use of tackling rings. He did some really good stuff with those today during the LB read period. We transitioned to defensive fundamentals after punt protection. After initial fundamental work, we pulled our kicker, QB and Free Safety. Our kicker worked PAT & kickoff with his square toe shoe. He will try it out this spring and we will decide what to do going forward. Our Free Safety is a Mr. Basketball candidate for next season. Our QB is also a very talented basketball player. These guys just completed their basketball season this past Tuesday in the region finals. They got no break between football and basketball season. I really appreciate them being there today. When I pulled them after some basic defensive fundamental reps in the secondary, they had more time to work on routes together. They have to be on the same page. That timing will help them and help our team. I told them today, I know you both have a bunch of options and could be doing other things. I will never waste your time. That is the difference in coaching today’s football player, especially the good athletes. We can’t waste their time. We can’t waste the talented guy’s time. But, we can’t waste the time of the incoming freshmen. We can’t waste any player’s time. We have to be creative & organized when we coach. The faster the tempo the better. We have to keep our guys engaged. If we don’t, they have other choices competing for their time.
In the old days, a lot of guys played football because that is what was expected and we just did it. There are still places where that is the culture. But, those cultures also know what quality coaching/practice looks like. Being a good football coach requires more these days. I saw a bunch of good assistant football coaches today, keeping kids engaged, and using their time in a constructive & positive way. I will be the first to admit that we have a lot of room for improvement and a long way to go. But, I like the direction we are going.
