The FNF Coaches Talk Podcast

Marshall head coach Charles Huff stops by the Fishcast to talk about his first year with the Thundering Herd, all the things he's learned from his past stops and coaching mentors like Nick Saban, P.J. Fleck, James Franklin and Chan Gailey. Huff also gives his thoughts on recruiting, the transfer portal and offers some advice to young coaches out there. Trust me, you'll want to listen to this one!

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Brian Johnson agreed to become the Cal head football athletic performance coach in January. Johnson has spent the previous 11 seasons on strength and conditioning staffs at FBS schools and in the NFL. Most recently, he served as director of strength and conditioning at Arizona (2018-20), where he heavily implemented sports science while also working as a liaison between the football program and the Center for Innovation in Brain Science.

Topics include:

How would he assess his HS strength program at Godby High (Fla.)? (1:55)

What was missing? (3:00)

Playing at LSU, what were the biggest takeaways from your college experience? (5:15)

How do you break up the season in terms of phases? (7:20)

What about position groups? Customizing workouts? (9:45)

What is a standard week like during the summer? (12:35)

How do you generate energy in the weight room? (14:35)

What lifts do you test players on? How does it work? (18:00)

What technology do you use in the weight room? (21:45)

How do you avoid soft tissue injuries? (24:10)

How does he train for speed (28:10)

How do you balance giving players enough recovery time vs. pushing them to make gains? (30:45)

How has your philosophy evolved over the years? (32:45)

What is your in-season philosophy? (36:00)

What did you take from your NFL experience? (37:30)

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Today’s podcast is going to help you come up with a health and safety plan for your team so that you don’t have any players who suffer from heat-related illnesses. Our guest is Cold Daddy CEO Hobby Howell. He talks about how his company’s patented portable water chillers make the game safer for coaches and players.

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We want to share products with you that make you more efficient as a coach, and this is certainly one of them. The CoachComm Cobalt Plus headset system with a Player Receiver helped one Arkansas coach win a state championship. Shiloh Christian’s (Ark.) HFC Jeff Conaway used the Cobalt system for the first time in 2020, taking advantage of the Player Receiver. During each practice, eight of his players wore receivers on their arms, giving the coaches a direct line of communication.

Conaway is the first guest to explain how the product helped his team. The second guest is CoachComm VP of Sales Mike Whitley, who talks about how the product can benefit teams.

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More and more football coaches are taking their cues from a high school track coach in Plainfield, Ill.  Tony Holler invented a revolutionary new method of training sprinters at Plainfield North High (Ill.) called “Feed the Cats.” It’s a minimalist approach to training which discourages putting sprinters through long workouts that make them feel crushed by the end. Topics include:

Why sprint training needed to be done differently (2:30)

What is the Feed the Cats program? (4:45)

Why it took courage to do something differently (7:10)

How he fills practice time with so few reps (11:30)

How often athletes should be training at top speed (14:35)

Record, record and publish (18:05)

Never crush the physical or emotional soul of athletes (22:10)

Micro-dose training (25:35)

How does this impact injuries? (32:00)

What technology helps coach? (36:35)

Do you ever hear from parents who say you need to be training them harder? (39:55)

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Today’s guest is Roger Harriott, head coach at St. Thomas Aquinas in Fort Lauderdale, FL. Harriott has led his alma mater to four state championship since his hire in 2015. Harriott opens the curtain on the culture at St. Thomas Aquinas, how he and his staff mold student-athletes into better people, and how he positions them to impact others in a positive way throughout life.

Topics include:

The structures he has in place to mold better men (1:40)

Objectives vs. goals (8:00)

Forming a brotherhood (12:30)

Instilling optimism and confidence in players (16:00)

The value of knowing how to become successful (23:00)

Being a role model in a conflicting world (28:00)

Glamorizing dangerous men (35:00)

How his team improved its GPA (42:00)

How he learned to harness his emotions after a loss (46:00)

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Today’s guest is one of the most successful coaches in the country and a legend in the state of Texas. Aledo High School’s Tim Buchanan has built a dynasty since his hire at Aledo High School in 1993. Aledo won its Texas-record 10th state championship in January. He talks about his vision for a program that competes in one of the most competitive districts in the country and what he’s learned and how he’s changed in 28 years as coach.

Topics include:

How he instilled a culture when he took the job in 1993 (2:45)The challenges of taking over a program in transition (4:50)Why he doesn’t talk about wins or championships (7:30)How he builds relationships with players and coaches (11:00)How calling his players’ parents knuckleheads worked out (15:30)His strength and conditioning philosophy (18:00)Why he makes his players run track (22:45)Technology that helps his team win (29:00)Apps he uses for video (33:45)How he collaborates with assistants for a game plan (37:30)

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Today’s guest is Brad Doherty, athletic director at Branson High School in Colo. In a small rural community with a dilapidated football field, Doherty launched a fundraising campaign for a new turf field in December. In just over three months, he has led an effort that has brought in $440,000. They plan to have a $540,000 project completed by the fall football season.

Doherty goes through all of the steps you need to take to get approval for a project like that as well as how his marketing efforts, grant applications and community outreach led to a viral fundraising campaign.

To check out the specifics of Branson’s fundraising effort, visit: https://bransonschooldistrict.com/football/

Doherty talks about:

Why his program needed a new field (3:00)What he had to do to get approval from the School Board (5:00)How a viral YouTube video caught the attention of the entire nation (7:00)A media and social media strategy that brought national attention to his program (9:00)How he met his goal of raising $450,000 in three months (13:00)The secret to applying for grants (17:00)How he pitted vendors against each other to bring the price down (22:00)How to create a sense of urgency for donors (27:30)Why the proposal should include benefits beyond football (33:00)How he put the kids to work to appeal to donors (35:00)

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Today’s guest is one of the biggest social media influencers in high school football, Kurt Hines. He’s the coach of Coronado High in Calif. He kicks off FNF Coaches Appreciation Month by sharing his inspiration for coaching and how he continues to inspire others through his platform.

He talks about developing leaders (6:00), developing a love for coaching while preparing special needs students (10:45), developing relationships with players (18:00), culture-building activities (25:00), his process of game-planning (31:00) and his experience developing an audience on Twitter (36:00).

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Today’s guest is an expert strength and performance coach in Colorado, Rob Van Valkenburgh. Coach Van Valkenburgh has trained D1 athletes as well as pro athletes in preparation for the NFL Combine. He now owns his own gym in Littleton, Colorado, where he trains high school football players year-round.

He talks about his philosophy of instilling confidence in high school athletes (3:30), the most important thing coaches should focus on at this time of year (6:00), how to coach the squat (9:00), which lifts or drills he tests (14:00), how to monitor athletes’ habits off the field (24:00), what a productive weight room should look like (30:00), and mistakes all coaches make (38:00).

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