Best Eleven of 2023, #3: Walking the Tightrope of Head Coach and Offensive Coordinator – Tre Lamb, Head Coach, East Tennessee State University

Tre Lamb was recently named Head Coach at East Tennessee State University. He is currently the youngest head coach in the FCS.

What stands out in this episode – #3 of our Best 11 of 2023 – is how organized and detailed Coach Lamb is. In addition to his head coaching duties, he handled all of the offensive coordinator duties at his previous coaching stop at Gardner-Webb.

He talked to us about how to be successful in both roles, as well as the 30-60-90-day plan he implemented when he took over at GW. He now is just days into implementing that plan at ETSU. Congratulations to Coach Lamb, and best of luck in your new program.

Show Notes:

• The drive to be a coach came through growing up in a football family
• Obsession from a young age
• Learning from good and bad
• Taking over as a new head coach during Covid and the challenges
• Selling a vision through Zoom
• Working to create buy-in from the start with honesty
• Being relatable but holding players accountable
• 30-60-90-day plans
• 30 days - listen
• 60 days - build up resources
• 90 days - share the vision of the program
• Walking the tightrope of being both head coach and offensive coordinator
• You must spend time with defense and special teams
• Balancing the responsibilities and demands of the head coach and offensive coordinator
• The offense - a blend of App State and Tennessee
• Building off wide zone and play-action pass
• Sequencing plays
• Really fast tempo or really slow and really wide splits or condensed sets
• The thought process on sequencing
• Getting more specific on game planning
• Every day is an interview

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