Coach and Coordinator Podcast

On today’s podcast, host Keith Grabowski is joined by Tony Holler, creator of the Feed the Cats speed workout program. Holler has over 40 years of experience coaching football, basketball and track in the state of Illinois. Holler joined the podcast today to talk about some mistakes football coaches often make in their approach to getting players physically ready to play in football games and what he has found to be the best practices. Show Notes: 1:09 Coach’s Journey 4:54 Track-Football Consortium 7:34 14 point turnaround 11:30 Breaking traditions in football practices 15:50 How fatiguing guys during the week can hurt their performance on game-day 18:12 If teams don’t do traditional “toughness” practices, how do they make their players “tough” 21:00 How Christian McCaffrey’s track coach changed him by doing “5-second” work 23:33 How speed creates endurance 27:47 Letting games be the hardest thing you do every week 31:40 Coach’s Feed the Cats Certification on Coach Tube 34:12 Connect with Coach Coach Tube Course: https://coachtube.com/course/track-and-field/feed-the-cats-the-off-season-speed-workout/12361114 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When taking over Quincy University's under performing offense in 2019, Keith Barefield made two key decisions. First, he simplified progressions to what he called "either-or" decisions. Next, he made high tempo the default for the offense. In this Quickcast, Barefield, now an analyst for the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns, explains the steps they took to make Quincy the fastest tempo offense in NCAA Division 2 as well as breaking 14 school records and jumping into the top 25 offensive rankings. -Key decision on passing game progression -Why be uptempo? -How to make it measrusable -Results The Hawks were the #1 team in NCAA D2 in tempo, running a play every 18.9 seconds. In the process, the pace at which they played accomplished the following on offense: -Broke 14 School records -Points per game: +14.6 points per game over 2018, #30 nationally, a 121 spot jump nationally -Passing yards +152 ypg over 2018, 9th nationally, +132 spot jump -Total yards 445ypg, +128 ypg 23rd nationally, +100 spot jump Get his course, "Turnaround an Offense with Tempo" on CoachTube: https://coachtube.com/course/football/turnaround-an-offense-with-tempo-keith-barefield/11947179?ambassador=325306f59bb543b6883ff4baa Get our free digital magazine: coachandcoordinator.com/magazine Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s podcast, Host Keith Grabowski is joined by Jeremy Hawkins, the defensive line coach at Eastern Kentucky University. Prior to taking his current position at EKU, Hawkins coached at Mercer, LSU and UAB. He joins Grabowski today to talk about his journey through coaching and about defensive line play. Show Notes: 1:13 Hawkins coaching journey 14:50 How coaching a position he wasn’t familiar with helped him grow 19:07 Hawkins experience working with Coach Orgeron 24:18 How what he learned from Coach O is helping him in recruiting 27:52 Maintaining relationships with the players once you successfully recruited them and have them on campus 33:00 Importance of having “Good-Eyes” as a defensive lineman 39:36 Coaching points for outside zone and his basic d-line techniques 48:01 Winning Edge 51:17 Coach’s Recruiting areas Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Joining host Keith Grabowski on today’s podcast is Chicago Bears Running back Coach David Walker. Having been a prolific college running back at Syracuse, Walker went back to his roots for his first college coaching career where he served as the Orange RB coach from 1995-03. After his time at Syracuse, he went on to Pittsburgh where he coached from 2004-10. Walker then coached the running backs for the Indianapolis Colts from 2011-14 and from 2016-18. Walker is considered one of the premiere runningback coaches in football. He joins the podcast today to talk about Coaching RB reads. Show Notes: 1:23 How Walker determined he wanted to Coach 3:15 What Walker believes makes a successful coach 5:43 Walkers platform for helping coaches grow 9:21 Developing the every down back 11:15 Owing the offensive line as a runningback 14:02 The responsibility of the coach to teach an elite runningback 16:34 What Walker teaches in his gap scheme 25:23 Outside zone 29:30 Walker's role in developing the game plan 35:36 Winning Edge 36:53 Connecting with Coach Walker’s CoachTube Course: https://coachtube.com/course/football/developing-the-complete-running-back/13031370 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s Coach and Coordinator Podcast, host Keith Grabowski is joined by John Hart, Head Football Coach at Brownsburg High School in Brownsburg Indiana. Hart has been a head coach for over 30 years in multiple different programs and got his first head coaching job at just 22 years old. Coach has multiple State Championship Titles and is known for his ability to turn programs around. Hart speaks with Grabowski today about the challenges of building a program from the ground up and how he managed those challenges. Show Notes: 1:07 Hart explains the process of becoming an HC at age 22 2:17 Biggest challenges he faced when he became a HC 4:01 How is program actually “outworks” their opponents 5:47 How organization helps maximize the offseason 8:12 Developing athletes in the offseason 9:35 Balancing cutting edge systems with what has worked for you in the past 12:31 Clubs Coach set up in his training program 18:10 What he looks for when figuring out what needs to change when taking over a program 23:44 How to create realistic expectations and execute them 26:45 Importance of being in a strong conference to increase your level of competition 29:45 Scheduling impact 31:26 What Coach will detail in his talk at the IHSFCA 34:38 Winning Edge 35:28 Connect with coach Illinois Coaches Clinic: http://ihsfca.coachesclinic.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of the Coach and Coordinator Podcast, we continue with our “Game Plan for Your Next Job” series. Host, Keith Grabowski is joined by Brian Rzeppa, author of “You’re Hired: A Guide to Working in Sports.” Rzeppa is an expert in every aspect of the job search process. He joins Grabowski today to talk about the best practices when getting an interview and how to make the most of those opportunities. Show Notes: 1:01 Rzeppa’s background and journey 2:31 How his tools and background relate to football 3:36 Advice for landing an interview 5:42 Determining what value you can bring to an organization 7:31 Value of building connections 9:06 Prepping for an interview 11:10 Finding the right fit for you 13:21 Advice for adapting to an interview and the process during the pandemic 15:34 Most common failures in interviews 17:23 How you approach a job after you’ve accepted it 20:10 Dealing with unexpected Challenges that arise after you’ve accepting a job 22:22 Key takeaways to pass along to coaches 25:04 How he came up with his coaching philosophy template 27:06 Connecting with Rzeppa Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s podcast, host Keith Grabowski is joined by 4-Time State Champion Head Coach, Steve Steele. Despite losing high profile seniors to graduation as well as dealing with the struggles of Covid-19, Steele guided a young Pierre Riggs High School team to a 4th State Championship. Steele joins Grabowski today to talk about how his team overcame adversity on the way to their 4th title. Show Notes: 1:32 How his team dealt with replacing players from previous years especially at the QB position 3:31 Role of analytics in Coach’s program 4:45 Which numbers they look at to determine who should get more touches 6:21 Their process for logging and recording data 8:26 Their approach to keeping the offense rolling despite massive player turnover 10:16 Keeping focus this year with Covid and other adversity 13:05 What they learned and would pass on to coach’s who have young teams after championship seasons 15:11 Their approach going into 2021 season 16:55 What his staff is looking forward to learning during clinic season 19:18 Adding TE’s and FB’s into his scheme despite the “spread craze” 20:50 Winning Edge 22:20 Connect with Coach Related Podcasts: https://soundcloud.com/user-804678956/pierre-tf-riggs-high-school-south-dakota-coach-steve-steele-talks-analytics-and-team-culture https://soundcloud.com/user-804678956/steve-steele-head-coach-riggs-hs-pierre-south-dakota Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s podcast, Host Keith Grabowski is joined by current Maryland Senior Analyst Ron Zook. Coach has been in football for over 40 years including stints in the NFL with the Steelers (96-98), Chiefs (99), Saints (00-01) and Packers (14-18). Zook was also the Big Ten Coach of the Year in 2007 for his work as Head Coach at Illinois. Zook joins Grabowski today to talk about how his experiences across football have helped him in today’s game. Show Notes: 1:26 Coach’s journey 6:07 Coach’s mentors and who he took his biggest lessons from 15:52 How big special teams was to Coach’s career 19:14 Coach’s approach to offense as a ST/Defensive Coordinator background 22:06 What he looked for philosophically in an offensive coordinator 25:02 The importance of analytics 27:38 Winning Edge 28:40 What Coach will talk about at Illinois clinic Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this Quickcast, University of Buffalo Offensive Coordinator Andy Kotelnicki shares his insight on defeating the Tite Front. -Using a perimeter play to stress an off the ball contain player -Staying with your inside runs -The need for a multifaceted approach -Game planning and prep or the Tite Front Get Coach Kotelnicki's clinic on Developing a Game Plan: https://coachtube.com/course/football/developing-an-offensive-game-plan-andy-kotelnicki/11825990?ambassador=325306f59bb543b6883ff4baa Get our FREE digital magazine Coach and Coordinator Monthly: http://coachandcoordinator.com/magazine/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s podcast, Coach Brad Dal Bon joins host Keith Grabowski to talk about the concept of virtual coaching. Dal Bon is the Outside Linebackers Coach at Homer High School in Homer, Alaska but lives and coaches from California. In today’s covid climate, working virtually has become a way of life and Dal Bon has been on the front lines of bringing that concept to coaching football. The first virtual coach in the country, Dal Bon speaks with Grabowski about his experience so far. Show Notes: 1:28 How his virtual coach role came about 5:08 What his head coach thought about it initially 9:04 Coach’s main obstacles 11:56 How it changed his coaching method 17:00 Concept of mental reps 20:14 How they operated with no meeting time and how the Alaska environment has its own set of challenges 22:44 How to build a relationship with kids virtually 28:07 How they operated on gameday 36:09 Practice vs gameday 38:02 Coach’s biggest takeaways from coaching virtually and what he would tell other coaches 43:17 How to get in touch with coach if you have questions about his setup Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices