John T. Reed’s football coaching blog

Copyright by John T. ReedJohn T. Reed is the author of The Contrarian Edge for Football Offense Unique Your offense should be sound, but contrarian. That is, it should be rare, or better yet, unique—different from all the other offenses that your opponents will see this season. You get a season; your opponent gets a week When your offense is different from all the others your opponents see, you get better at it every day all season, but opposing defenses only get one week to learn how to defend it. High-reps skills Better still, incorporate high-reps skills—like the option or...

Most parents know that top-notch college football players can get scholarships.But those are rare. In the 2002 season, two Monte Vista players got college scholarships. In the 2003 season, another two did.What is more common and less known is the fact that being both a good football player and a good student can get you admitted to many of the top colleges with the highest academic standards.A good, not great, football player who is also a good student, will typically be recruited by every top academic Division III college he approaches. That list includes:• MIT• University of Chicago• Pomona• Claremont•...

1999 is the first season since 1989 when I have not been coaching. There are two reasons: my youngest son, who is twelve, announced he is through with all youth sports. My middle son quit youth sports when he was eight. I have never coached youth sports except when one of my three sons was in the program.The other reason is my oldest son is a freshman tailback at Columbia. The Ivy League allows no scholarships except for financial need. Columbia says by their criteria we have no financial need (if we sell our house, I guess), so I have...

Youth football blocking is a scandal. It really stinks. Why? Because of neglect and incompetence by the coaches. The mistakes being made include: Not working out blocking assignments for each play against each defense Not trying to put the best players in blocking positions Not using blocking schemes and techniques that work in youth football Not making sure each player knows his blocking assignment on each play Not grading blocking performance in games or practice Truth to tell, the vast majority of youth football teams are essentially uncoached. They just point their few good athletes at a couple of points...

The best coaching periodical—the Wall Street Journal—does it again. Today’s issue has an article titled “Why the NFL has a Quarterback Crisis.” Google the title to read it. It basically says that because the NCAA teams have largely gone to the spread hurry-up offense, the QBs coming out of college do not know how to read defenses. Why is that? Spreading the offense—like four wide receivers—spreads the defense. When you spread the defense, you make it harder, if not impossible, to disguise the defense. For example, it is important to ascertain whether the defenses is in man pass coverage or...