The Football Coaching Podcast with Joe Daniel

Get your coaches in the right place is going to be critical to the success of your football team. This takes a lot of thought to get it right. Every coach on your staff is at a different level. A different person. We're not all great field generals, or great motivators. We each have strengths and weaknesses. And of course, every coach on your staff has a different level of experience. At different...

The Offensive Line takes more attention to details and technique than any other position on the field with the possible exception of Quarterback. Your asking big men to do unnatural things. Players can't just rely on their athleticism. In today's episode of The Football Coaching Podcast, I'm going through the key blocks you will use in a Gap Blocking Scheme. That's plays like Power, Counter, Iso a...

It's the longest wait in football. The time from the end of school to kick-off on Friday night. Seems to take forever. Don't waste that time. You can get a lot out of your pre-game routine! This week's Twitter Poll winner was Pre-Game Warm Up's. From the pre-game meal to the opening kick, I'll go in depth on how you can get your players ready to play. How should you handle your meetings? When do y...

There's a lot of ways to get your Offensive Formations to your players. None of them are the right way, you just need a system. One that's consistent. Learning football terms like formation calls is like learning a foreign language. So you can't be too complex (I don't know how good your kids are doing in Spanish, ours struggle). Formations are usually called using a combination of words and numbe...

On this edition of The Football Coaching Podcast, it's a deep dive into Pattern Read Coverage. What is it, and why should your team run it? And also… why shouldn't your team run it? We'll talk about making the decision. I'll talk about the 4 Critical Keys to Coaching Pattern Read Coverage. Then we'll dive into all of the communication your players have to learn to run a successful pattern read def...

For this week's episode of The Football Coaching Podcast, Defensive Game Planning won the Twitter Poll! You can vote for next week's poll topic on my Twitter feed @footballinfo.   This could probably make up a month's worth of show topics. I decided to focus on one aspect - the scouting.   Gathering enough information to give your football team an advantage. Without going overboard. And without di...

The most important skill for a Linebacker is learning how to defeat blocks. A Linebacker should expect to defeat a block before he makes the tackle. It's also one of the hardest skills to get your Linebackers to execute. The natural tendency is to run around those big guys trying to push you.  I've studied a lot on coaching linebackers. The best resource I've found is Lou Tepper's Complete Linebac...

You voted and this is the topic that won! Coaching Without Leadership means coaching when you don't have those leaders on your team. The one's that would make your life so much easier. Here's the real secret. You have leaders. You have leadership. Now you have to be the coach. Develop it. And there's a lot going on here. For this podcast, I referenced my interview with Coach Chris Zablocki and his...

Get ready for an in-depth look at Coaching the Outside Linebackers. Or Overhang Safeties. Whatever you want to call them! In this episode of The Football Coaching Podcast, I'm going through the foundations of coaching your force players in the defense. This is mainly from the perspective of a 4-4 or 4-2-5 Defense, or a 3-5-3 or 33 Stack Defense. But you can pick up some ideas no matter what defens...

I've talked a lot about The Pistol Power Offense System . But I don't know if I've ever talked about what it really is. At least, not on this podcast. The Pistol Power Offense System is just the One Back Offense. Run from Pistol… and under center, and gun. It's just a fancy name. What's the One Back Offense? Pretty simple. We've got a feature back. Then use a hybrid H-Back to move around and set u...

Size matters. Especially when you don't have it. Coaching with smaller players means you have to make some adjustments. Your undersized team can still have success if you don't hit the panic button. In today's episode of The Football Coaching Podcast, I'll give you 8 keys to Coaching With Smaller Players. This is probably the most common question I get asked. Or some form of it. "My team is unders...

The 4-2-5 Defense is probably my favorite defense. And what I'm best known for. In today's episode of The Football Coaching Podcast, we're going to talk about the basics of this 8 man, even front defense. This is the same as a 4-4 Defense. Or a 6-2 Defense. Numbers don't really matter. Don't get caught up thinking this is some 'Spread Defense'. We'll go in depth on Defensive End alignment and resp...

When's the right time to start applying for jobs? That's easy.  You can always apply for the job. The interview experience in invaluable.  But when are you ready to take a head coaching job?  "It depends." That's the answer we've heard for years. In this episode of The Football Coaching Podcast, I'm going to nail down the real right  time to be a new Head Coach. Just a warning. I don't want to be...

Champions are made in the Weight Room. Every High School Football Coach talks about how important this time of year is. This week's episode of The Football Coaching Podcast is all about the keys to having a great off-season in the Weight Room. Getting the most from your football strength training. On a side note, this episode is 100 episodes after my favorite Football Coaching Podcast of all time…...

I've only heard one coach ever talk about how loaded his team was. Twice. He's won two State Championships. For the rest of us… we got problems. The kids are too small. Too slow. Too young. Too soft. Too entitled. Something's wrong. For every single one of us. Probably why coaching is not for everyone. You get into coaching thinking you know everything. The smartest coaches are the one's who have...

Our biggest job as a coach is to develop character in our players. Best way to do that is to model it. There's a lot of problems in society today. We know football can help develop our young men to overcome those problems. Rise above. And a victim mentality? That's a big one. It's always someone else's fault. "I can't!"  Why not? Because of this… this… this… oh the list goes on. As a football coac...

You work hard. Is it enough? Are you the right guy for this? We all worry about whether or not we've done all we can. Done it the right way. Your players only have a few years to play the game. That's a lot of pressure. Not to mention pressure for the faculty, administration and community. It's normal to wonder... Am I a good football coach? So I made a checklist. And you can download it from Joe...

It's that time of year. Some guys are rolling into the Playoffs. Others are searching for answers.  This episode of The Football Coaching Podcast is for those guys who know that what you're doing... it isn't working.  Change your thinking. Your approach.  Make that change first. Then you can change the scheme.  I talk about my Pistol Power Offense System in this episode. You can check out the free...

You stand on the sidelines in disbelief. We worked on this! The fans in the stands have their doubts. How could any kid who's ever been coached make mistake like that!? The skills that you forget even need to be coached. The skills that everyone should be able to execute. On paper they seem so easy. But you've tried to teach it. You're cutting years off your life trying to get better at it. These...

Every coach has the question. How do we turn losers into winners? Kids need to learn to win. Winning isn't easy. Sure, some wins come easy. And if you're just better than everyone else... that's easy. Championship football teams win close games. Tough games. Go back and look at nearly every undefeated team or Championship team in NCAA Football. They all have a scare somewhere on the schedule. When...

It's one of the most frustrating parts of being a football coach. The scout team. You work to put all the opponent's plays down on cards. You show them to a group of guys on your team... wait, these guys are all on your team? ...anyway, hold the card up. Everyone looks. They nod. They head to the line. The ball is snapped. If the snap doesn't get fumbled, it's a small victory. Then the disaster is...

Putting together your offensive game plan is critical to the success of your football team. And the most important part of that game plan is your evaluation of the defense. What do they do best? Where are the weaknesses? Who are the best players? The worst players? What are their tendencies? When do they change? (you can get your tendency report faster if you let us tag your game film! ) Then you...

Lots of coaches can draw up passing routes. Trick the defense, find the holes in a zone. It's fun stuff. But this isn't 7 on 7. And it ain't Madden. You want to throw all those fancy passing concepts? You have to protect your Quarterback. In Episode 170 we talked about the pass protection technique that you can use. That's independent of your pass protection scheme. On this episode of The Football...

There's your pass protection scheme, and there's the technique you use to execute it. Today we're talking about technique. You're probably familiar with kick sliding... that thing you see NFL Offensive Tackles do all the time. But that's not the only way to protect your quarterback. Or even the best way to go about it, if you don't throw the ball much. There's a few options. In today's episode of...

There are many different ways to coach Linebacker Keys. They all have their merits. None of them are perfect.  This is probably the most asked question I get at Joe Daniel Football. What should our Linebacker reads be?  It's pretty simple. What do you like the best? What gets your kids going the fast?  You need to decide how much room for error you want to leave. How important is it for the keys t...