Spring to-do list
Spring football ain't what it used to be.
I remember my father telling me that when he was coaching college ball back in the late '50s spring football would last forever. He only had two assistant coaches and they would each coach both sides of the ball. One assistant coach would handle the offensive and defensive linemen, the other would coach running backs, tight ends and linebackers. Dad would coach quarterbacks and receivers on offense and defensive backs on defense. They would divide spring practice up between offense and defense so they could focus equally on each side of the ball.
The entire month of February would be spent coaching the offense, every single day of the month for 28 straight days. Then, they would coach 31 straight days of defense for the entire month of March. Weekends would be utilized for 11-on-11 drills and scrimmages.
Talk about a grueling schedule.
Obviously, you could cover about anything you wanted when you had that much time. But that was then and this is now. The NCAA has curtailed the amount of time you can participate in spring ball over the years. Now it is down to a mere 15 days and only 10 of those in full gear. With so little time, coaches must do a great job of identifying exactly what they want to accomplish in order to get it all in. There is an old saying that "he who covers everything covers nothing," so here is a list of the five things most coaches feel they must address during spring football to get ready for the fall.
• Find your best 22: Make sure you find out who your best players are and get them into a starting position. Spring is the time to experiment and move players around from offense to defense and position to position. That way, when the season starts, you don't have your best ones backing somebody else up or taking too much time developing at the wrong position.
• Work on fundamentals: Winning football almost always comes down to blocking and tackling. They are the foundation upon which a successful football team is built. Since you have very little time during the season to work on technique and fundamentals, it is absolutely essential that you get the basics down in the spring.
• Experiment on offense and defense: If you are thinking about changing anything on offense or defense, you better take a look at it in the spring. Maybe you feel that you need to add the shotgun zone-read play to your offense and you don't know if your quarterback can handle it. Work out all the kinks in the spring so you can focus on your opponents during the season. My philosophy was to have the playbook completely ready before preseason football practice began and spring football is the only time you have to experiment.
• Develop depth: You never know who is going to get hurt, quit, or flunk out so you better have a couple of kids ready to go at each position. Spring ball is a time to focus on drills that utilize as many of the players on the team as possible so they all are being developed. During the season, the first team gets almost all of the reps, so depth must be developed in the spring.
• Will he fight or will he quit? Every coach has his own way of answering this question about his players, but on every team, without exception, it must be answered. When the game is on the line, when everyone on the field is totally spent and exhausted, when there is nothing else left to give, will a player fight or will he quit? Will he bow up and lay it on the line or will he lay down and let the man across from him have his way. I don't care how you do it, but you must have as many "gut check" drills as you can in the spring so you know how each player will react in the heat of battle during the season.
Being a champion is an every-day thing. With only 365 days in a year, those who know how to be a champion understand how to utilize each and every one of those days in order to get better. Getting the most out of spring practice is a big part of that championship equation.
