John T. Reed’s football coaching blog

Interesting article at http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/30/us/despite-concussions-boxing-is-still-required-for-military-cadets.html?_r=0. It is about freshman mandatory boxing at West Point. Teddy Roosevelt started it at West Point President Theodore Roosevelt made boxing mandatory at West Point. Also horseback riding and swordsmanship. They got rid of the horses and swordsmanship in the 1940s I think. But we had to do the boxing when I was there. I thought it was super for instilling the idea that in war you either hit or get hit and hitting is better. Football also does that, but although they have intramural football at West Point, it is not mandatory. It was mandatory that...

Many parents and some players are concerned about injuries in freshman high school football. If you like this article you will probably also like my book Coaching Freshman and Junior Varsity High School Football. Generally, football players can expect bruises and lacerations. These are painful, but it is the sort of pain that players are expected to ignore. We have an excellent trainer in Kevin Amaral. He has nine years of post-high school education (bachelors and masters) in his field and we are fortunate to have him. All players who have injuries that might be serious must report to Kevin...

Stop giving athletes extra credit for come-from-behind victories. When you scored is meangingless.Feb 13, 2024 In Superbowl, Tony Romo incorrectly said Mahomes should have spiked the ball with :26 left in regulation.Feb 12, 2024 Niner Dre Greenlaw violated my clock management rule in Packers playoff game thereby risking losing the gameJan 21, 2024 Purdy inaccurate in Niners start.Jan 14, 2023 65-7 FBS score?—and it wasn’t that closeJan 10, 2023 What to do about the few high schools who slaughter almost everyone elseDec 17, 2022 Time to stop pretending the Army-Navy game is what it was back in the dayNov 27,...

All offensive coaches should choose a sound, but contrarian, offense. I wrote a book on that called The Contrarian Edge for Football Offense.   Sound means the offensive scheme can work when executed correctly. In theory, you could have a brand new offense that’s sound. There have been a number of them over the years. In this article, I am more referring to existing offenses that have been proven to be sound by years of on-field success in actual games. Contrarian means unusual or, even better, unique. See my Contrarian book for details. What’s currently fashionable Most football teams run the...

common clock management mistakes Clock management in the NFL stinks. It’s worse in college football and worse yet in high school. There are a number of reasons for this including: • no visible play clock in high school • little or no practice time devoted to clock issues • no clock available or turned on for practice • poor understanding of correct clock management by coaches • low priority The typical high school coach assumes clock management consists entirely of two-minute drills—which he practices for about ten minutes on Thursdays. The correct approach is to learn all the principles of...