Coach and Coordinator Podcast

On today’s podcast, host Keith Grabowski is joined by Army Assistant Coach, John Loose. Since 2004, Coach Loose has run Lauren’s First and Goal, a charity which donates money to brain tumor research as well as to families who have been impacted by cancer. So far, LFG has raised 2.6 million dollars to the fight against cancer and have shown no signs of slowing down. Loose, who hosts events every year for LFG, will go virtual this year via an online clinic on Coach Tube. (Link at bottom) In addition to discussing different aspects for the upcoming clinic, Loose and Grabowski talk about situational football and its impact in the game. Show Notes: 1:31 Lauren’s First and Goal upcoming Clinic 14:37 Current use of analytics in football as well as the importance of situational football 19:18 Prepping for all different situations 24:22 Use of codewords 27:11 Recommendations for coaches trying to improve their situational awareness https://lfgf.coachesclinic.com

On today’s podcast, Host Keith Grabowski is joined by Appalachian State Outside Linebackers Coach, Cortney Braswell. Starting in the High School Ranks just a few years ago, Braswell has worked his way up to a Division 1 coaching job. Grabowski talks to him today about how he worked his way up as well as how he coaches his OLB’s and why they are true hybrid players. Show Notes 1:53 What inspired Braswell to be a football coach 3:46 How being a High School coach is helping him as a college coach 6:40 How he teaches all his different techniques to each player 10:28 Quarter vs 2x2 13:25 Coming up with drills to support what you do on on gameday 15:46 How he prepared to be a division one coach 18:14 How Braswell built relationships to work his way up from the High School ranks 20:06 Well done is better than well said 23:45 How he sees what he taught when he flips on the film 25:42 Advice for aspiring coaches 29:16 Winning Edge Lauren's First and Goal Clinic Signup: https://lfgf.coachesclinic.com/

On today’s episode of the Coach and Coordinator podcast, host Keith Grabowski is joined by Michael George, assistant coach at Westwood High School in Texas. Prior to his time coaching high school ball, George spent time in the AAF and XFL as well as at Texas State and Ohio University. George talks to Grabowski about his experiences in those different football leagues as well as how he has built different kinds of relationships and how both sides benefit from these relationships. Show Notes: 1:52 Coach’s Journey since he was at Texas State 8:25 What unique changes did he see from his experience in the AAF and XFL that could convert to the mainstream game 20:03 How Coach views networking and used it to his benefit 25:10 How George’s relationships have helped him, but also how he’s helped others 35:18 Power of listening

Today’s Coach and Coordinator podcasts welcomes Arthur Ray, Offensive Line Coach at Northwood University. Coach Ray has a unique history of perseverance as he overcame a battle with cancer and went on to become an excellent college football player as well as getting a chance in the NFL. Ray joins Host Keith Grabowski to talk about his unique story as well as some of the techniques he uses in coaching his offensive lineman. Show Notes: 1:18 Coach’s battle with cancer 4:54 Coach’s football playing career post cancer 7:00 How his lessons from previous coaches led to his philosophy 10:47 Coaching the mental side of the game 14:22 Building confidence in players 17:57 Training and drills 21:00 How he trains eyes and why they are important to striking 23:24 How he teaches posture in pass protection 27:00 What run scheme he loves teaching the most 30:03 Coaching against a team that moves a lot 31:40 Arthur’s med balls drills that he features on Coach Tube 33:40 Winning Edge

On today’s podcast, host Keith Grabowski welcomes the Head Football Coach at Medina High School, Larry Laird. Prior to his time at Medina, Coach won multiple state titles between his time as an assistant and coordinator at Kenton High School and Avon Lake. Laird is known for his unique empty offenses and he joins Grabowski today to walk about some of the intricacies in those offenses as well as his journey through coaching. Show Notes: 1:26 Coach’s Journey 2:30 Key lessons Coach has learned along the way 4:22 How Coach learned to think outside the box from previous coaches 6:24 How teams gameplanned against him 8:10 How his unique offense impacted the culture of his program and his numbers 10:16 How they deal with weather given their offensive system 12:24 How he helped mold Avon Lake’s offense 15:30 Key aspects to forming his culture 17:21 How to keep the positive momentum in a program moving from year to year 19:47 Challenges his program has faced this offseason 24:28 What Coach will be talking about at his upcoming clinic 25:56 How much tite front they see with their base empty sets 27:30 Technique for their unique snaps 28:13 Running plays for the QB and how it becomes it an advantage in their offense 30:00 What they see in coverage 31:55 Self scout and internal focus 34:01 Utilizing the R4 system 35:45 Using players from the other side of the ball when you have a 2 platoon team 38:22 Winning Edge

I first saw The Leadership Ladder during a clinic presentation by Gregg Brandon, then the head coach at Bowling Green State University. I really like how this simplifies the levels of leadership, and this has become a tool that I share with my seniors during the offseason. 00:42 Learning from Gregg Brandon HC at Colorado School of the Mines 01:12 A tool to share with players 01:31 Starting with a coach driven off season 01:55 Move the individual to being about others 02:37 Overview of the five levels 03:38 Lowest level – seniority 03:54 Selfish – not invested in the team 04:07 Unselfish producing some results but not necessarily for others 04:38 Self-sacrifice – committed to the team and making sacrifices 04:57 Investment in others and being influential presence 05:25 Off season starts with more of an individual focus and more coach driven 05:45 Coaches need to model positive leadership 06:21 Utilize the leadership ladder to have conversations with players 07:17 Positive individuals and how to deal with those not aligned 08:05 Transition to player driven by creating opportunities

On today’s Coach and Coordinator podcast, host Keith Grabowski welcomes Jason Miran, Offensive Coordinator at Bucknell University. Miran was named offensive Coordinator at Bucknell in 2019 and was later selected to the AFCA 35 Under 35 Coaches Leadership Institute in 2021. Prior to his time at Bucknell, he helped turn around the offense at Valparaiso and also had stops at Lehigh and Franklin and Marshall. Miran joined the podcast today to talk about his multiple offensive sets and how he works different RPO’s into his game plan. Show Notes: 1:08 Coach’s Journey 5:37 How coach developed his offensive philosophy 8:43 How Miran teaches and educates his players 12:18 Role of play action in his RPO offense 17:17 Quick naked/boot 21:29 How he fits WR screens in his offense 24:23 How he approaches his professional development 28:07 Winning Edge

On today’s podcast, Host Keith Grabowski is joined by Keith Riggs, Head Football Coach at Jenks High School in Oklahoma. Jenks is one of the most storied high school programs in the country and Riggs had the impossible job of replacing Allan Trimble, a High School coaching legend. Riggs is now fresh off a state title and talks to Grabowski about what difficulties he faced this year and about what it was like to replace a great coach. Show Notes: 2:38 Coach’s journey 4:49 Riggs approach to following up a legendary coach 6:30 The culture at Jenks 8:44 Riggs approach to the year 2020 and all it’s obstacles 11:27 Advice for Coach’s as they kick off their offseason under covid 13:15 Focus on what you can control 15:40 New things they tried during the pandemic that they will take with them after 18:42 How the circumstances of this year played into a full team effort on gameday 20:40 Dealing with players who were quarantined 22:22 Importance of football to his community 23:50 Winning Edge

Special thanks to CoachTube and the Texas High School Coaches Association for sharing the audio for today’s Quickcast. It is taken from the CoachTube course “The Ragin Cajun formula for offensive success.” For our listeners this course is 50% off for the next week. The link is in the shownotes. The Ragin Cajuns are currently 9-1 and in first place of Group A in the Sunbelt Conference and ranked #19 in the nation. Averaging 422 yards per game, 33.9 points per game on offense. Head Coach Billy Napier shares their offseason development plan for their offensive players. This certainly can be applied to both sides of the ball and special teams. As you consider how you might approach this next off season, Coach Napier’s common language, lesson plans, and ignition reels for players can be an interesting way to present information to your players. Common language for the Ragin Cajuns begins with how they label the defense. Coach Napier explains the significance of this as well as suggests that this is a session that you have with all your players and staff so that everyone is on the same page with how to communicate. It makes in game adjustment so much more effective Lesson plans are something we are all familiar with as teachers. Napier lays out exactly what they do in each lesson plan in order to improve the football IQ of his players. In this segment he shares how it is done with the quarterbacks. The visuals for this are in the THSCA course on CoachTube and the link is shared in shownotes and on coachandcoordinator.com Ignition reels are examples of players doing things at an elite level. Think about what you can do to create a library of your best former players, opponent all conference players, or players from the highest level performing at their position. This is a powerful tool in helping players see what it takes to excel on the field. The entire course Ragin Cajuns Formula for Offensive Success can be found on CoachTube. Link is in the shownotes in your description or at Coachandcoordinator.com It also includes details on every aspect of what goes into their game plan. It’s 50% off for the next week. As you consider how you present to your players and teach with pandemic restrictions still in place, Coach Napier’s plan which is paying dividends for the Ragin Cajuns could be the way to go. A perfect platform in which to present this is Just Play Solutions. Just play solutions allows you to create everything that Coach Napier talks about and present it in a way that is very visually for you players. It includes quizzing and check for understanding ability to keep player learning at the highest levels. Check out their platform at and mention you heard about it on Coach and Coordinator to save 10% on your new subscription. www.justplaysoultions.com Lauren’s First & Goal Clinic to benefit pediatric brain tumor research and cancer services. January 14-17. Over 160 FBS/FCS coaches. Mack Brown, Luke Fickell, Greg Schiano, Dan Quinn headline an incredible line-up of coaches from every position. Lfgf.coachesclinic.com Early bird special $49 or $150 for a staff of 5 Twitter: https://twitter.com/CoachKGrabowski http://coachandcoordinator.com/ Get “Ragin’ Cajuns Formula for Offensive Success” here: http://bit.ly/2K7SmEM

On today’s podcast, host Keith Grabowski is joined by Eastern Illinois Offensive Coordinator, John Kuceyeski. Prior to his time at Eastern Illinois, Kuceyeski coached for 3 years at Cornell where he was in charge of running backs and then the offensive line. Kuceyeski has had other stops at Iowa State, Toledo, Western Michigan and Penn State. Kuceyeski came on the podcast to talk about how he’s built the Eastern Illinois offense and tailored it in a unique way. Show notes 1:23 Coach’s journey 4:03 What Coach has learned so far from the coaches he’s worked with and under 10:25 Self and program evaluation 12:50 “Outwork Smartly” 20:30 Game Planning and evaluating situations over a 3-5 year span 24:10 Building an offense around an offensive line 28:55 How he “brands” his offense 31:43 How they make the offense unique to them 35:16 Importance of players understanding the play calls and why 37:38 Winning Edge

Today’s podcast welcomes back Eric Kasperowicz, head coach at Pine-Richland High School in Western Pennsylvania. Kasperowicz is fresh off another state title, but this time in a year that was very different from previous ones. He joins host Keith Grabowski to talk about some difficulties his team faced this year as well as some defensive scheming. Show Notes: 1:17 Coach’s Championship Run 3:18 Difficulties they faced this year with Covid 5:28 More difficulties with the situation like not having a locker room 10:07 How to recover some of the aspects of the season that were lost 12:23 Dealing with the limitations this coming offseason 17:11 Effective strategies for watching film when you’re not with the kids 19:55 Role of accountability 21:22 Pre-snap stemming 27:57 How different alignments help mess with offenses 33:00 Countering offensive indicators 36:26 How they teach their base alignments and terminology 40:24 How Coach Tube has progressed the offseason plans for coaches Previous Podcasts: https://soundcloud.com/user-804678956/uptempo-defense-eric-kasperowicz-head-coach-of-pine-richland-high-school-gibsonia-pa https://soundcloud.com/user-804678956/tips-for-a-successful-summer-with-eric-kapserowicz-hc-pine-richland-hs-pa You can find all of Coach’s CoachTube courses here: Basics of the 4-3 Defense https://bit.ly/384kDnB Stopping the Pass in the 4-3 Defense https://bit.ly/3nmvMXu Stopping the Run in the 4-3 Defense https://bit.ly/3nidO8A 3x1 Adjustments https://bit.ly/3gLuR0r

Today on the Coach and Coordinator podcast, host Keith Grabowski is joined by Lexington High School Head Coach, Kyle Cogan. Prior to serving as the HC at Lexington, Cogan was the defensive coordinator. Lexington has been on the forefront of defensive schemes since Cogan took over and he joined today to talk about his 1 High Zone Match Coverage. Show Notes: 1:51 What problems he was seeing that led him to his current system 4:48 Finding better answers and building on Zone Match 7:23 How Cogan put his own fingerprints on the scheme 9:08 Differences between Zone Match, Spot Drop and Man Match coverage 14:12 Advantages to playing Zone Match vs Man Match 16:06 The “dividers” in his scheme 21:38 Does Coach feel as if the teams in his conference are scheming vs his defense differently 24:16 Rules of the droppers 29:56 Teaching vs 2-back and how that hits together 32:30 How his defense plays vs some more traditional schemes and plays 35:06 What concepts has he seen offensively in 2020 that would cause him to readjust and adjusting to his new personnel 38:03 Concerns vs shallow screens like mesh 39:58 Wha he has found he needs to improve going forward 43:00 Drill ideas 44:06 Coach’s courses on Coach Tube Coach Tube Courses: https://coachtube.com/course/football/foundations-of-zone-match-1-high-coverage/13058034?ambassador=325306f59bb543b6883ff4baa https://coachtube.com/course/football/3-4-down-even-space-zone-1-high-run-fits/11312303?ambassador=325306f59bb543b6883ff4baa https://coachtube.com/course/football/zone-match-1-high-vs-spread/11821474?ambassador=325306f59bb543b6883ff4baa

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

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

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