Looking back...2012 in Review

"Reflection is the better part of a champion"

I took a major break from this blog as things got hectic with our spring and summer program and didn't even think about it during our actual football season.

It feels good to be back and have an outlet to reflect upon this year.

This season was a step in the right direction for our football program. We made the playoffs for the first time since 2009, beat our cross-town rivals for the first time in five years and won seven games, something that hasn’t happened at our school since 2002.

Unfortunately, we ran into a solid program in the first round of the playoffs and fell 49-19.

Last season we went 2-8 following a 4-6 showing in 2010. Those were both very long years. This season flew by. We had a lot of fun along the way and although I didn’t always take time to enjoy the voyage, I’ve been able to reflect upon the success we had now that the season is over.

It was truly a remarkable trip. This year’s seniors had won a combined five football games their first three years of high school football. Those who stuck it out showed tremendous resolve. And they were rewarded for their hard work.

This year was my fourth as Defensive Coordinator and fifth overall coaching high school football. Our defense had a remarkable turnaround from the previous season. Last year we had major issues tackling and giving up big plays. It showed as we allowed our opponent’s to score over 37 points per game.

This group of seniors was our first who learned our offensive and defensive schemes as freshman and ran it for four years in the program. I think that definitely attributed to our success this season. Although we lacked some size and speed defensively we made up for it by understanding our alignment and assignment and then executing our jobs at a high rate. Our players deserve a ton of credit for how football smart they are and for how well they retained what was taught to them throughout their career.

As some of you know, we run a 4-2-5 that blends itself between multiple styles. We base out of Cover 4, but we also run Cover 3, zone blitz and run Cover 0 blitzes. We use an Over front that can be set anywhere we want and get into an Under front against 21 personnel  teams.

We are multiple, but simple at the same time. Regardless of what exact call we are in, I want my players to know where to line up, who their key is and how they react to that key. I want them playing fast.

This season our defense made a tremendous turnaround from the previous one. In 2011, we couldn’t stop teams from running on us, gave up over 37 points per game and were the worst tackling team I had ever been around.

This year, we gave up 20.63 points per game and allowed 50 yards less per game (255) than we did last season.

I always look at 3^rd-down conversion percentage as a tell-tale sign of whether or not a defense is any good. The ability to get off the field when given the chance is key to success. Our goal for every game is to hold our opponents to 30% or less on 3^rd down conversions. This season we held our opponents to 28% on 3^rd down, a 10% improvement!

We forced 25 takeaways (12 interceptions and 13 fumbles), six more than last year and increased our sack total by eight.

All this was accomplished with only one full-time returning starter in our front seven. The strength of our defense was definitely our safeties and corners, three of whom were starters last year. Two of them earned 1^st-team All League status at defensive back and a third earned 1^st-team honors offensively.

I didn’t do a whole lot differently than any previous season. But, I did make a switch and coach the defensive backs. The previous three seasons I had been the linebackers coach. I was lucky enough to have our previous JV Head Coach move up and assist with the LBs and our defensive line coach did a tremendous job as always.

We did use a different approach to introduce tackling fundamentals and I felt like we did a better job correcting fundamental tackling mistakes during practice.

This season and the talent we have coming up in our program has given us a very positive outlook on the next couple of years. This year’s team laid the foundation for this program to build for years to come.

 

*In future entries, I will continue to reflect on the 2012 season, but in more detail in regards to our schemes, other areas of our program, what went right, what went wrong, etc.