Lee Rose is now a defensive analyst for the University of North Carolina. But Coach Rose got his start in Poland. He learned very quickly how to work with limited resources and to make his teaching and coaching clear and concise because his players spoke English as a second language. Since that experience, he has been on a quest for best practices in teaching and coaching, especially as they relate to the classroom portion of coaching.

Today, Coach Rose shares what he puts together in a tip sheet for players to have information boiled down to the essentials, as well as how he would do it if he were back in Poland or at a lower level. In addition, we dive into a discussion of how different technology can be integrated into a smooth workflow.

Show Notes:

Follow Lee Rose on Twitter @Coachleerose.

Related Episodes:

From the Military to Coaching: Leadership & Innovation – Ben Kotwica, Special Teams Coordinator, Denver Broncos: https://bit.ly/412oSu3

Create a Better Plan and Develop Players with Data and Technology – Billy Riebock, Offensive Coordinator, Midwestern State: https://bit.ly/3Gbwe6b

Make the Most of the Reps You Have Available – Caleb Collins, Outside Linebackers Coach, Baylor: https://bit.ly/40GGhZd

Related Resources:

Using Technology to Coach Generation Z: https://bit.ly/3GgxMvI

Punt Install with Technology and Drills: https://bit.ly/410jUxL

DB Culture, Classroom, Technique: https://bit.ly/40IyKcw

Visit coachandcoordinator.com for enhanced show notes with links to related episodes, resources, and articles, as well as our winning edge takeaways. Also sign up for our free Weekly Tip Sheet which highlights the best ideas from the previous week, trending episodes, and featured resources.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s episode is from the 3rd Annual Lauren’s First and Goal Clinic to benefit pediatric brain tumor research and cancer services.

In his talk, Lew Caralla, Director of Strength and Conditioning at Charlotte, delivered 39 ideas on coaching. All are straight to the point and cover ideas directed to both players and coaches. We pulled out 11 of those ideas more focused on the coach, and how a coach can network, lead, and positively impact players and others through this incredible platform we have as coaches.

While this episode is short, its messages paint a picture of what an elite coach must do to excel in this profession.

Show Notes:

Follow Lew Caralla on Twitter @LewisCaralla.

Coach Caralla’s Entire Presentation:

Leadership Perspective: https://bit.ly/3ztdOdG

Additional Lew Caralla Episode:

Creativity in Coaching Strength and Conditioning: https://bit.ly/3m4knAe

Be sure to go to coachandcoordinator.com for enhanced show notes with links to related episodes, resources, and articles, as well as our winning edge takeaways. The enhanced show notes for this episode include the transcript of each of the messages pulled from Coach Caralla’s talk which we shared here today.

Also sign-up for our free Weekly Tip Sheet which highlights the best ideas from the previous week, trending episodes, and featured resources.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s episode is from our archives. It was recorded with Dub Maddox five years ago, pre-pandemic and at the start of what proved to be a rapid evolution of today’s defenses. Interestingly, the concepts Coach Maddox talks about may be more relevant now than when he shared those ideas originally on the podcast.

Dub is one of the great thinkers and great football minds in the game. I have picked up a ton from him over the years. A trip I took to sit down and talk ball with him for a couple of days in 2010 stands out as highly productive. That visit helped me solidify how I thought about the passing game and how we could bring our receivers and protections together with our quarterback progressions to improve our passing game.

In this episode, Coach Maddox shares insights from studying the U.S. Military that he applies to football. If you listened to this episode five years ago, you will want to sit down and listen again, and bring a pen and notebook. Be sure to listen to our winning edge takeaways and ideas for implementation following this conversation with Coach Dub Maddox.

Please Note: When we originally recorded this episode, there was a lot of static in the connection, but the content was just too good not to air, and it’s also too good to not share again.

Show Notes:

Follow Dub Maddox on Twitter @CoachDubMaddox.

Related Resources:

Harvard Business Review article, “The Best Ideas Come from Outside Your Industry”: https://bit.ly/42ZfY1Z

Free Download of Question Set to Inventory Your Offense: https://bit.ly/3TXhQEq

Dub Maddox’s Book Adapt or Die: https://amzn.to/40T4rzF

Be sure to go to coachandcoordinator.com for enhanced show notes with links to related episodes, resources, articles, and our winning edge takeaways. Also sign up for our free Weekly Tip Sheet newsletter, which highlights the best ideas from the previous week, trending episodes, and featured resources.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We reached out to today’s guest after we confirmed some eye-popping stats from his 2022 season. 62 touchdowns, 3,204 passing yards, and 1,805 rushing yards, in sum producing an average of 500.9 yards per game and 48 points per game. All at the high school level with 12-minute quarters and a running clock after a 30-point differential.

Those numbers screamed “high-level execution”, and we wanted to dig into the what, how, and why behind it.

Meet Mike Peck, offensive coordinator at Burley High School in Burley, ID.

Show Notes:

Follow Mike Peck on Twitter @CoachPeck11.

Related Episode:

From the Archives – Noel Mazzone: https://bit.ly/42UL1fi

Be sure to go to coachandcoordinator.com for enhanced show notes with links to related episodes, resources, articles, and our winning edge takeaways. Also sign up for our free Weekly Tip Sheet, which highlights the best ideas from the previous week, trending episodes, and featured resources.

Coach Peck’s 7-day install template is also available on coachandcoordinator.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ben Kotwica has 17 years of coaching experience, including 15 seasons in the NFL. Most recently, Kotwica served as the assistant special teams coach for Minnesota in 2022 and was part of a coaching staff that helped the team to the NFC North Division title.

A graduate of Army West Point, where he was a linebacker and team captain, he went on to serve as a helicopter pilot, reaching the rank of Captain and serving in the Iraq War, as well as in Bosnia and Korea.

He began his coaching career at the US Military Academy Prep School as a defensive coordinator before jumping to the NFL as a special teams coach or coordinator for the New York Jets, Washington Redskins, Atlanta Falcons, Minnesota Vikings, and now the Denver Broncos under head coach Sean Payton.

On today’s episode, he shares his influences and the importance of our roles as coaches, developing a leadership style, innovation, and the use of technology in teaching and developing players.

Show Notes:

Follow Ben Kotwica on Twitter @BKotwica44.

Watch Coach Kotwica's Presentation from Lauren's First and Goal:

Punt Install with Technology and Drills: https://bit.ly/3KjpkP5

Related Episode:

Figure It Out with Mike Westhoff: https://bit.ly/3JVFPPE

Be sure to go to coachandcoordinator.com for enhanced show notes with links to related episodes, resources, articles, and our winning edge takeaways. Also sign up for our free Weekly Tip Sheet newsletter, which highlights the best ideas from the previous week, trending episodes, and featured resources.

Follow us on Twitter @CoachKGrabowski.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Football is in Lance Zierlein’s blood. He is the son of retired NFL Coach Larry Zierlein and an analyst for NFL.com since 2015. His opinions on the best players in the game are highly respected across the industry.

Today, he joins us to share his involvement in the Joe Moore Award, shed light on the process for determining the award's winning unit, and reveal the characteristics of the highest-performing offensive line units in the country.

Through the conversation, both the physical and mental aspects of elite offensive line play show through, and he shares the common characteristics displayed by the coaches leading these top units.

Show Notes:

Follow Lance Zierlein on Twitter @Lance Zierlein.

Additional Joe Moore Award Episode:

Aaron Taylor: https://bit.ly/3zchYGr

Related Resource:

The Moore Method - OL University: https://bit.ly/3zchYGr

Additional Offensive Line Episodes:

Sonny Dykes - Putting Together an Offense: https://spoti.fi/42NgiAL

Bob Wylie - Coaching That Builds Relationships (Part 1): https://bit.ly/3TPJgfm

Bob Wylie - Coaching That Builds Relationships (Part 2): https://bit.ly/3nsAuYI

Kyle Caskey - Blitz Pick-Up: https://bit.ly/3lJ9UtZ

Research and Development Series:

Tackles: https://bit.ly/3FYLwLx

Interior Linemen: https://bit.ly/40FMofZ

Be sure to go to coachandcoordinator.com for enhanced show notes with links to related episodes, resources, and articles, as well as our winning edge takeaways detailed in text. Also sign-up for our free Weekly Tip Sheet, which highlights the best ideas from the previous week, trending episodes, and featured resources.

Follow us on Twitter @CoachKGrabowski.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adam Cushing is the run game coordinator at Duke and also coaches the offensive line. Prior to serving on the Blue Devils staff, he spent three years as the head coach at Eastern Illinois University.

Coach Cushing spent 15 seasons in a variety of roles at Northwestern University, including ten seasons as the offensive line coach. He also coached the super backs, tight ends, and H-backs, after starting as a graduate assistant working with the offensive line. Cushing had recruiting coordinator responsibilities as well, twice earning national recognition as one of the Big Ten’s top recruiters.

Coach Cushing got his start in coaching as an assistant coach at the University of La Verne.

In this segment from the 3rd Annual Lauren’s First and Goal Clinic, Coach Cushing focuses on what it takes to create a consistent player. While he gives examples with the offensive line, what he describes applies to all position groups, units, and the team.

He establishes that consistency is the hallmark of greatness. His discussion includes mental consistency in training players' minds, especially related to the game plan, player-owned culture, and consistency with cultural messages.

Show Notes:

Follow Adam Cushing on Twitter @CoachCushing.

Listen to Coach Cushing's Entire Clinic Talk: https://bit.ly/42JDa49

Additional Adam Cushing Episodes:

Simplifying Culture: https://bit.ly/3LUgdpg

Additional Adam Cushing Video Course:

Culture and Leadership: https://bit.ly/3z9Y6nq

Please go to coachandcoordinator.com for expanded show notes, including our winning edge takeaways and links to resources. And while there, be sure to sign up for our Weekly Tip Sheet, which shares the best ideas from the podcast.

Follow Keith Grabowski on Twitter @CoachKGrabowski.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s episode is from our archives and features Brent Dearmon from when he was the offensive coordinator at Arkansas Tech. Since that time, he’s gone on to do big things.

Coach Dearmon is currently the head coach at the University of North Alabama. Prior to his current role, he served as the offensive coordinator for Florida Atlantic in 2022 after spending the 2021 season as OC at Middle Tennessee. His previous experience also includes serving as head coach at Bethel University. In his one season at Bethel in 2018, Dearmon guided the team to an undefeated regular season mark. Bethel earned a number-three ranking while averaging 540.3 yards and the second-highest scoring average in the country at 55.0 points per game. He was named Mid-South Conference Coach of the Year.

Dearmon then made the rare jump from NAIA to FBS when he joined Les Miles' staff at Kansas in 2019 as a senior offensive consultant. Midway through the 2019 season, Dearmon took over as the program's offensive coordinator and led the team to a 24.1 scoring average and more than 400 yards of total offense per game.

Brent Dearmon has always been at the forefront of RPO thinking, and it’s become a big part of the offenses he has directed. In this episode (one of four with Coach Dearmon in our library), he talks about assembling gap-sound RPOs that attack the defense across the entire field.

Be sure to listen to the Winning Edge at the end of the episode for our takeaways and ideas for implementation from this episode.

Show Notes:

Follow Brent Dearmon on Twitter @BrentDearmon.

Related Resources:

Coach Dearmon’s Courses: 

Gap Sound RPOs

RPOs

Identifying and Attacking Coverages with the RPO

Coach Dearmon on CoachandCoordinator.com:

The Hot Gap

Additional Coach Dearmon Episodes:

Our First Interview with Coach Dearmon

Creating a Common Language for Coaching

C- and D-Gap RPOs

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Billy Riebock is the offensive coordinator at Midwestern State in Wichita Falls, Texas. He’s coached at all levels of college football, gaining valuable experience from the coaches he’s worked with all along the way.

On today's episode, Coach Riebock shares how he utilizes data in the offseason to help determine what the offense will look like for the coming season. He also goes into detail about how Midwestern State utilizes technology to create a better workflow and better teaching tools for their players.

Show Notes:

Follow Billy Riebock on Twitter @RiebockBilly.

Winning Edge – Takeaways and Ideas for Implementation:

1) Know how much offense you need... Coach Riebock’s story about asking Coach Skrosky why they don’t change up plays in a certain situation made me recall something I have learned in the past – know how much you need by utilizing and studying the data of your past seasons. I highly recommend Brian Billick’s book, Developing an Offensive Game Plan. In the book, he lays out step-by-step what the process is for determining how much offense you need.

Coach Billick writes, “Regardless of what type of team you coach (high school, college, or youth), you must think on three levels: yearly, weekly, and game day. Each level has very set parameters as to how much offense will actually be run in any given segment. The more you can overlap the amount of total offense you can carry vs. the amount that can be effectively practiced, the more effective the offense you actually run on game day will be.”

2) Constantly evolve by examining how you are teaching and coaching... Ask yourself if you have the best methods, best tools, best technology to prepare your players. I heard a quote from retired Army General Eric Shinseki, who said, “If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less.”

That’s where we are in our profession as the game becomes more and more dynamic, and we must find ways to best develop our players.

3) Use an “expert” system to implement new technology and workflows... It reminds me of an African proverb, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” This approach gives you the benefits of moving quickly and also going far with new technology.

That expert should be the one to learn it and then efficiently teach it and help the others on the staff troubleshoot it. In that way, you will more efficiently implement new tools into your workflow.

Please go to coachandcoordinator.com to sign-up for our newsletter, the Weekly Tip Sheet. We share the best ideas from the past week’s episodes, recommended resources, and share our featured episodes.

And follow us on Twitter @CoachKGrabowski.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s episode, Amanda Ruller joins the podcast to share a different perspective on networking in this profession, finding a way to the top, and then dig into ideas and drills for training running backs.

Coach Ruller is currently the running backs coach at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. She recently served as the assistant running backs coach for the Seattle Seahawks through the Bill Walsh Diversity Fellowship program.

Her unique background in strength and conditioning, data and analytics, and sports media, as well as her experience as an elite multi-sport athlete, is something she leverages to advance in the profession.

There are plenty of takeaways from this episode, including insight and advice to become known to the people who can help elevate you, as well as ideas for creating purposeful drills.

Show Notes:

Follow Amanda Ruller on Twitter @AMANDAbolic.

Watch Coach Ruller's Speed Training Presentation from Lauren's First and Goal.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices