Coaching Trips as a Staff..Really cool professional development opportunitues..

As a member of the football staff here at Denison I enjoy the opportunity to visit with other caoching staffs in a variety of ways. One obvious way is through various clinics like the THSCA clinic (see Staff Retreat) and a variety of others. Some of the best known to our staff that many of us have attended are the DFW coaches clininc, Glazier Clinics, Lone Star Coaching Clinic, and the FCA Coaching Clinic. A really nice way to learn as a staff is to find a college that will make time for your staff and help you with some new ideas, techniques, and or plays that will be beneficial. I have had the pleasure of visiting Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina in the Spring of 2008 with the Denison offensive coaching staff. We spent three days with them right at the first of Spring Ball (no pads). This was great because we sat in meetings with palyers and heard their coaches reiterate many of the same basic things we tell our kids. It was also special as they were just finished winning their third straight NCAA College Division National Championship and had the historic victory over Michigan that year. We benefitted greatly on this visit where we discovered the beauty of some old single wing power sweep rules (Truck Sweep) that still hold true today and meshed really well with soon to be secret weapon 175lb. center (obviously we knew he would be good at pulls). We also discovered we could put his athleticism to good use in reaching out to the weakside 1 and or 2 technique so as to stretch defenses more and utilize our more athletic linemen who were more capable of runnning and fitting than drive blocking and powering down on people off the ball. We have also had the opportunity this past year to visit the Univesity of Texas. Two great days we had the free run of a meeting room and much of their "cut-ups" to learn their throwing game. Coaches Bobby Kennedy and Greg Davis made themselves very available to talk about routes and concepts. The "two man" game is what coach Davis is famous for going all the way back to his "option route" successes as offensive coordinator over fifteen years ago Tulane. Double out, spots, cube and in are all further concepts that we have benefitted greatly from. We also simplified our play action some by going with the "naked" boot play. The Horns are happy to let Colt McCoy go 2 on 1 in space but we just could not see that being a good idea so we went with part of our old boot rules which tells the backside tacle to leave 1 guy. This does affect how much he can sell play action though. Coach Mack McWhorter shared with us too his offensive line drills and progressions. These were very good for us especiall the pass pro drills.