I grew up in a small, Texas town where “Jesus is Lord and Football is King” so I was a football girl long before Coach came along. I remember attending the local games when I was a kid, I was all about cheering on the sidelines in junior high and high school, and even my Grandma Syble watched the Dallas Cowboys EVERY Sunday.
Just like a religion ; )
Last night, I had a blast teaching a “Football 101” clinic to a fabulous group of ladies! It was so fun to meet with them via Zoom, and I really enjoyed working with Coach and my SonShine to put the presentation together.
With the Super Bowl only 2 weeks away, I thought I’d share the information here, too…
I organized the presentation like a ball game, beginning with a Pregame introduction and pep talk by Coach Lombardi…
Next, we talked Tailgating where I shared ideas and themes for setting up your tailgate party and planning your menu including my sister-in-law Kay’s amazing Peach Tea, a simple yet tasty Game Day Sangria recipe from my dear friend and fellow coach’s wife, Lindsey, and these scrumptious, baked, ham and cheese Tailgate Sliders which are always a hit…
Then we kicked off the 1st Quarter which covered the basics and the Offensive phase of the game…
One thing I realized that I misunderstood about the coin flip is that a team can, in fact, receive the ball in both halves OR kickoff in both halves. It’s not common, and Coach told me he’s only seen it happen in one of his games once over the past 26 years.
It was when he was an assistant coach and our captain – knowing that we preferred to be on offense first in the second half, hence would be on defense first in the first half – accidentally said “Kickoff” when he was supposed to say “Defer to the 2nd Half” – – yikes!
We ended up giving Kansas the ball first in both halves, and Coach said he felt really, really bad for our player who knew he’d made a big mistake.
The 11 Offensive positions are pretty set. You might hear Wide Receivers referred to as “Inside” or “Outside” Receivers, and you might hear a Running Back called a “Half Back,” “Fullback,” “Tailback,” or “I-Back” but those are simply breakdowns on how the position is used in that set or formation.
I touched briefly on where the Quarterback stands to start the play (shot gun vs. under center), and we discussed a few concepts like RPO (Run/Pass Option schemes that call both a run play and a pass play that are designed together and allow for the QB to read a certain defensive position and then decide between the run play or the pass play after the ball is snapped), Huddle vs. No Huddle strategies, and Hurry Up vs. 2-Minute Offenses.
We could have talked about Offense for days!
Offensive coaches are very innovative and create lots of wrinkles to trip up defenses within their game plans.
Whew – that was fast, uptempo football!
The 2nd Quarter was all about Defense phase of the game…
Within the defensive positions, there are also many different names for specific Tackles, Linebackers, and Safeties. I’ve listed just a few that we often hear the announcers mention during a game. How the positions are used and what they are called varies from program to program, but the concepts are the same across the board.
When we hear the announcers say a team is using an odd-man or even-man front, they are referring to the number of Defensive Linemen directly in front of the Offensive Line. In the diagram below, the light blue circles correspond with the positions listed in the slide above. If you’re wondering where the rest of the defense is, the Secondary (Corners and Safeties) is missing from this slide…
Within those fronts, defenses run either a man or zone coverage…
(Blitzing is not a coverage but worth mentioning. The Defensive Linemen are always pushing through to attack the offense behind the Line of Scrimmage. When a Blitz occurs, the defense sends more players in addition to the Linemen to attack in the backfield.)
Within those man vs. zone options are lots of…you guessed it: options!
Defensive coaches are incredibly creative, too, and there are many, many different coverages, stunts, and blitzes that we could diagram.
Here are just a few. Notice how many defensive linemen there are in each slide.
The Cover 2 and Cover 4 diagrams show an even, 4-man front. The Rat Cover 3 diagram shows an odd, 3-man front.
That was a lot to “cover” – ha ha, see what I did right there?
Thankfully, next up was Halftime and an opportunity to stand up and stretch mid-game.
I also took this time to talk about “Yoga with Momma Monty” and the benefits that yoga provides for athletes at every level of competition…
Since earning my 200-Hour Yoga Instructor designation in 2015, I have been leading the University of Tulsa Football Team in a yoga practice year-round.
During the winter semester, we work around their off-season schedule and do a combination of mindfulness, introductions to meditation, and a lot of flexibility and balance work.
During the summer semesters, we get to work with hot yoga on the field which pushes them to a physical and mental edge that fosters confidence, strength, and determination.
During the fall semester and when they are in-season, we enjoy recovery yoga classes to help unwind tension and soreness after continuous days of practice, very physical games, and long plane rides.
In their digital-driven, noisy, stressful, homework-consumed, loud, crazy, high speed world, I absolutely love that our time together is teaching them to give grace, take time to unplug and pause, and embrace silence and solitude when given those gifts.
And we are back!
The 3rd Quarter covered Special Teams and included 5 cuts of game film that SonShine gathered for me. I can’t copy those slides to my blog post without losing the MP4 format, so you’ll have to trust me that seeing the footage exactly how the coaches and players study the plays was pretty cool!
Many people overlook the impact of Special Teams.
They are vital to success!
During this third phase of the game, we often see the most dramatic swings in both positive and negative field position. Furthermore, the importance of good field position for your offense and poor field position for their offense can not be overstated
Moreover, the PAT and Field Goal points scored in a game are often the difference between getting in the WIN column. Or not.
Next up, the 4th Quarter (where I barely skimmed the surface of rules as that could be a week-long clinic in and of itself)…
And finally, we stepped into Post Game Interviews where my guests had some very good questions and we had time to visit together.
Even though I like to think I know more than the average amount of football, I still learned a few new things while we were creating this program…things like “12 Personnel” and “Rat Cover 3” which make me feel super smart.
Have fun browsing the slides, and be sure to holler if you have any questions of your own. If I don’t know the answers, I know exactly where to go to find them!
Thank you for taking a look through my Football 101 presentation.
Let’s break it out with “Family” on 3…
1 – 2 – 3 – – Family 💛
With love and hugs,
Ashli
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