Summary: Joining the USA Football Coach and Coordinator podcast today is Kirk Fridrich, head coach of Tulsa's Union High School (Okla.). Fridrich has guided Union to five state titles during his tenure as head coach, including a 57-43 win over Norman North in the 2016 state championship game. Fridrich, who still calls the team's defensive plays, dives into the value of involving the whole community in the football program, how he defends the RPO and why the situation is never more important than the relationship. Show notes 1:01 Start as a football coach 2:07 Lessons learned as a young coach 3:22 Maintaining a winning culture at Union 7:28 Establishing culture in a large school/district 9:20 Determining a yearly theme 11:07 The "gamechanger" in Fridrich's program 14:28 Creating fundamentals lists by position 16:07 When the head coach should consider calling plays on offense or defense 18:51 Defending the RPO 20:49 Weekly defensive gameplanning 22:46 Communicating the game plan to players 24:22 Advantage of drone view 25:24 Mistakes made as young coach 27:11 Best advice received 28:22 Creating balance 30:14 The development pathway 32:25 Importance of training youth coaches 34:57 The winning edge Coach Grabowski’s 3 takeaways 1) Creating culture throughout the community 2) Stop RPO by changing up looks vs the QB 3) As a young coach, working not to be the weak link
