The Plan
September 20, 2005 04:57 PM | General
September 20, 2005
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – At just about the time you opened up the Sunday paper to begin reading about West Virginia’s 31-19 win over Maryland, the Mountaineer football coaches had already completed their staff meeting and were handed East Carolina cut-ups to begin planning for the next opponent. Maryland was already old news.
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| Part of West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez' Tuesday is spent talking to the media.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
During the season it’s all about the plan and that plan actually started the week before when the team’s graduate assistants first began preparing tape for Sunday’s big handoff. If the opponent has already played five games, then eventually all five games will be dissected and analyzed. If it’s 10 games, then all 10 games will be broken down. It’s not unusual for coaches to put in 15-hour days, particularly on Sundays and Mondays when the basic game plan is being organized.
That’s a far cry from 25, 30 years ago when coaches were often home by eight. It has been said that Miami Dolphins coach Don Shula was usually out of the office by 6 o’clock each day to be home in time for supper; Pittsburgh Steelers coach Chuck Noll sometimes didn’t even come into the office on Mondays after a Sunday game.
“You watch a football game -- pro or college -- 10 years ago, 15 years ago, or 20 years ago and it was pretty vanilla compared to what you see now,” said West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez.
Today, video editing systems and computers have made the game incredibly complex, and while it can do a lot to reduce the amount of time a coach spends preparing for a game, it can also add additional work because game plans are growing ever more complicated.
“We put in a lot of time -- it’s just that our time is more productive. I think we’re better prepared now than we’ve ever been,” Rodriguez said. “That’s one of the reasons why you see so many different defenses, offenses and schemes.”
ESPN recently did a piece on the amount of time coaches spend preparing game plans. Buffalo Bills defensive coordinator Jerry Gray is in his office by 4:30 am each morning and usually doesn’t leave until close to midnight. New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick and Washington Redskins coach Joe Gibbs have both been known to sleep in their offices. Dick Vermeil, one of the game’s best coaches, had to step away for a while because of burnout.
The same type hours are being kept by many college coaches, who in addition to getting their teams ready on a weekly basis, must also have to deal with recruiting. Neither Rodriguez nor his assistants sleep at the Milan Puskar Center, but they work as long as it takes to get their team prepared for an opponent.
“We’re not the kind that is here until 1 in the morning but if we need to be to get things corrected then we will,” said Rodriguez. “I want our guys to work as long as it takes to get the job done. It’s such a competitive profession that if you don’t put the time in and do your work you’re simply going to get beat. And if you get beat, you get fired at this level.”
The coaching profession has always been about keeping up with the Joneses. If Coach A spends X amount of hours a day in the office then Coach B spends X amount of hours a day trying to keep up.
Rodriguez and his assistants don’t count their hours or watch the clock, but they do understand that the coaches on the other side of the field are developing a solid plan of attack. And it’s not necessarily the amount of time a coach puts in that determines whether or not a game plan is successful. Sometimes dedication can be confused with disorganization.
“You know the other guy is going to have a good plan and you better have a good plan just in case,” Rodriguez said. “The last thing you want to do is be in the course of a ballgame and something happens to you and you don’t know the answer to it. You may not be able to fix the answer but at least you know it.”
Long known for being an innovative coach, Rodriguez says the successful coaches are the ones that can stay ahead of the curve.
“I think that’s the fun part of coaching playing that chess match,” he said. “If you don’t stay on top of it I think it can hurt you. It’s still always going to come down to players executing and fundamentals. If you have some schemes on top of that to put them into a position to win then you’re doing okay.”
But at what point does a game plan become too complicated for an 18, 19, or 20-year-old college student to understand? Unlike the pros, college players don’t have an entire day to study an opponent’s strengths, weaknesses and tendencies. WVU defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel admits that is something coaches have to constantly monitor.
“You always worry that you give them too much that they can’t handle it,” Casteel said. “The big thing is that you want them to play fast. Right now our kids are able to go out and play fast and not have to think for the most part. That’s the thing that we as coaches can get to the point of where they can go out and play like they did in high school when we recruited them.
“To a certain point it has become too complicated because it still comes down to blocking and tackling,” Casteel added. “It’s your guys and what they do best against the other team and what they do best. For the most part as coaches we sometimes have a tendency to make it a little bit more complicated than what it needs to be.”
The actual game plan, according to senior safety Mike Lorello, usually never comes to them all at once.
“Monday we go in and get the basics while the coaches are still kind of working through some of the things they want to do,” said Lorello. “Tuesday, we’ll put in more stuff that is kind of a broad range of things they think can work, we’ll run it, and then they’ll go back and watch the tape and see what worked and what doesn’t work. Wednesday we kind of cut it down a little bit and then Thursday we really focus in on what we’re going to be doing for the game.”
Rodriguez says there is a fine line between being too simple and too complicated.
“You can only put in what your players can execute in all three phases,” he said. “You can be too simple that they can figure you out. At the same time you better have enough schemes so that you can have success. That’s the balance in coaching.”
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| West Virginia defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel explains a technique during fall camp.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
Unfortunately, there is very little balance in a coach’s personal life during the season. When you arrive at 6 am to clear off your desk before your 7:30 am staff meeting, and then leave the office at 10:30 at night, that leaves little time for the family. Casteel’s daughter Sarah and son Jake know that their daddy isn’t going to be home until late at night after they’re in bed.
“They’ve never really had it any different,” Casteel said. “I haven’t been home for the years that I’ve had them and that’s the tough part of the job.”
Rodriguez says those few minutes he gets to spend with his two children in the afternoon before practice or during the evening after practice are the highlight of his day. “They’re happy to see me for those 15 minutes,” he said. “That’s why I like those early games especially if it’s home because then we can be home by 5:30 or 6 o’clock and spend a few hours of quality time with our family.”
Recruiting is an added burden but ironically, it’s something most of the coaches look forward to because it gets them away from their computers and their game plans for a short time.
“Recruiting adds a little bit but it’s almost a break for you because it gives you a chance to talk to some kids and their parents on the phone,” Rodriguez said.
Coaches also don’t get sick. They can’t. Lorello couldn’t imagine going to a practice without Casteel, Bill Kirelawich, Tony Gibson or Bruce Tall there to coach him.
“I don’t ever remember being on a staff where any coach has missed a day,” Rodriguez said. “My advice to my players is whatever you do in your profession get a job where you don’t watch the clock.”
Lorello, one of the team’s brightest players and a real student of the game, says coaching requires an unbelievable commitment.
“I just don’t think that’s for me,” he said.
Coaching is not for a lot of people.
