On this episode of Coach and Coordinator podcast, Coach Grabowski welcomes Paul Rice, defensive coordinator at Fordham University (N.Y.). Rice captained the 2009 Yale football squad before going on to be a player-coach for the L’Hospitalet Pioners in Barcelona. Rice returned from overseas to work for his alma mater as an assistant offensive coach. Now, Rice has taken over duties as the defensive coordinator at Fordham and joined the podcast today to discuss his defensive philosophy and scheme.

Show Notes

1:07 When Coach knew he wanted to coach

2:30 How important was the experience of being a captain at Yale to his coaching career

4:00 Key takeaways from playing/coaching in Barcelona

10:15 How coaching offense as an assistant helps him coach the defense

11:50 Three truths of the Fordham defense

13:46 Coach’s tackling philosophy and how they implement it in practice

16:45 Implementing tackling philosophy into scheme and game plan

19:10 Analytics and tackling

21:48 Fordham’s defensive scheme

24:22 How Fordham attempts to defend RPOs

26:30 How do you alter your practices when playing against an RPO team

28:20 How to prepare vs. tempo

31:08 How to play vs. tempo

33:33 Importance of preseason install

35:35 Winning edge

36:43 Coaches contact info

Related Content:

https://blogs.usafootball.com/blog/7227/advanced-tackling-system-key-performance-indicators-and-penalty-avoidance

https://blogs.usafootball.com/blog/6447/podcast-fordham-special-teams-assistant-vincent-digaetano-discusses-tackle-grading

https://blogs.usafootball.com/blog/5366/podcast-coach-and-coordinator-lessons-from-2017-vinny-digaetano-1-19-18

https://blogs.usafootball.com/blog/6954/learning-of-the-advanced-tackling-system-part-one

https://usafootball.com/development-training/tackling-systems/