January 27, 2011 • Football

Football: A day-by-day look at game planning

Developing the game plan is the most important item for an offensive staff during game week. At Bethany College, our staff developed an in-depth outline toward breaking down opponents, preparing practice schedules and practice scripts, and time-managements goals for the week.

Here is a day-by-day look into our preparations.

Sunday

Our game-week schedule is designated from Sunday to Friday. The main objective is to have a final breakdown of our previously played game by 4 p.m. Saturday. The breakdown consists of players’’ grades on assignments and team goals. We also determine individual awards for our players from the previous game.

Following our team meeting, our players divide into groups and watch the film with their position coaches. The players’’ night ends with position lifts. At about 7 p.m., our staff begins the initial breakdown of our upcoming opponent’s most-recent film. This breakdown consists of yard line, down and distance, series and hash.

Monday

Our staff reports to work by 7 a.m. We immediately begin working on our scouting-report assignments.

As the offensive coordinator, I begin the final breakdown on our opponent’s most recent game. During this breakdown, I’m concentrating on fronts, pressures and coverage. Our staff uses an editing system to prepare reports from the previous two games of our opponent, which were completely broken down by Friday of the following week. Our coaches then use play-diagramming software to develop strategies against our opponent’s top defensive alignments and stunts, as well as five- and six-man pressures.

At this point, as offensive coordinator, I develop a page for defensive coverage. As a staff, we develop a cover page for the scouting report and make enough copies for every offensive player. I then begin using our editing system to develop cut-ups of specific pressures and situations for our players and film session.

Tuesday

At our team meeting, we hand out and go through the weekly scouting report of our upcoming opponent. We then begin to develop our practice schedule.

On Tuesday in practice, we concentrate on fundamentals and have more individual and group time during this session. We emphasize normal first- and second-down situations throughout practice. During our sessions of 7-on-7 and inside drills, we work on all normal-down runs and passes. We then conclude practice against our scout team and work on normal-down runs and passes, but also concentrate on screens and perimeter plays.

Tuesday night we have a 30-minute film session with our players. Fifteen minutes are spent going over several key points from practice, and the other 15 minutes are used to watch the opponent’s base defenses on normal downs.

Wednesday

During practice, we concentrate on third-down plays during 7-on-7 and inside drills. During our session against the scout team, the concentration is on third-and-short (0 to 3 yards), medium (3 to 6 yards) and long (7 and over) yardage situations.

We have three runs (which may include screens) and three passes scripted to go against our scout team for each situation. After practice, our players go eat and come back for their second workout of the week, as well as participate in another 30-minute film session. During this film session, we concentrate exclusively on our opponent’s third-down defensive pressures and coverage.

Thursday 

Our staff reports by 8 a.m. We begin finalizing practice for Thursday, which consists of our two-minute drill and situational offense. We begin working on our green-zone plays, which, for us, is from the 30- to the 15-yard line. Typically, we have four runs and four passes for normal downs in these situations, then the concentration moves to third-and-long, third-and-medium and third-and-short plays in the green zone. We usually have two runs or screens and two passes for each third-down situation.

After this, we move to our red-zone plan. For us, the red zone is from the 15-yard line to the 5-yard line. The concentration is on three runs or screens and three passes for normal situations in the red zone. Then, the focus moves to third-down situations (short, medium and long) for the red zone. The goal-line package (from 5 yards and in) also receives work on Thursday. These plays are usually similar to our third-and-short plays we use from our game chart. During Thursday’s practice, we also review all of our special or trick plays.

Friday

Friday is a big preparation day for our staff. We finalize the initial breakdown of our next opponent in the morning. I make sure that our game-day call-sheet is complete.

During practice, we review our openers for Saturday’s game. We then go through a mock game in which we practice sudden-changes, all special-teams units and our 16-second field-goal play. After practice, our staff attends local high school football games.


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