Key to UCF's Success? Coaches Doing Less

[Mavric]

Quote

“In my mind, and I learned a lot of this from Pete Carroll. Your preparation is everything. When we prepare at a certain level, you can see it. We saw it transform at UCF. When coaches do less and less during the day, on a daily basis. That is where winning results happen.”

Ruud isn’t suggesting that coaches sit around in their office all day and work through the wee hours of the night, but he is noting that if you’re spending your days Monday through Friday locked in your office game planning constantly, that’s usually not the best approach. Get your plan of attack together, make small tweaks here and there when needed throughout the week, and get players to execute those ideas throughout the week and give them plenty of reps at it out on the field.

 

When you start to perfect how you prepare and use gameplan time, a good chunk of your time during the day can be used leaving your door open, and connecting with players, coaches, secretaries, etc. That’s an area that often gets overlooked in favor of scheming for hours and hours and hours on end sometimes.

 

Football Scoop

 

 

[brophog]

This is true, and what prevents this from being the norm isn't science, it's culture. 

 

The "work hard" culture, especially at extremes where excessive hours are the expected norm for everyone, is not the best for productivity. Humans function best in small chunks. Do something for a little bit, then do something else. Small shifts are better than big shifts. Doing an activity for ten minutes is better for learning than doing it for an hour. Your brain just kinda turns off after a while. 

 

Culturally, and this definitely applies to football coaches, we put a value on working obscene hours because we're putting more value in quantity than quality even though copious amounts of research suggests otherwise. 

 

In what became the Scott Frost megathread I had a link where a reporter asked Frost last season what he did with the unusual amount of early season off time created by the hurricanes. He said he took his wife to the haunted house because it was not usual to have any in season opportunities to do something like that. I'm sure at least one reporter had to think he's crazy, here his schedule is turned upside down and instead of grinding away in the office, he's out playing with the wife. We saw the payoff to this last year though as one event after another came up and he was always prepared to tackle them.

[Toe]

^ People gave Riley flak for attending a Salt Dogs game just before the start of the season last year...

[Making Chimichangas]

1 hour ago, Toe said:

^ People gave Riley flak for attending a Salt Dogs game just before the start of the season last year...

 

They did?  I missed that entirely.  

 

If the Huskers are winning and Coach Frost is only "working" 6 (a random number meant to convey a short work day relative to other coaches at other schools) hours a day, no one will say anything.  But if we're losing and he's only "working" 6 hours a day, pooh will hit the fan, wall, and everything else because people love to over-react.

[Toe]

Article from Barfy @ OWH, written after the Minnesota loss:

 

Quote

It’s an image that’s been stuck in my head since appearing on Twitter in August.

 

On the Sunday before Nebraska’s opening game this season, coach Mike Riley and his wife were pictured attending a Lincoln Saltdogs independent league baseball game.

Part of me wanted to pass it off as no big deal. Maybe he needed some fresh air.

 

The rest of me recoiled at the thought of missing valuable preparation time six days before the biggest season of Riley’s life at Nebraska. That thought grew as Arkansas State moved the ball at will and came within 10 yards of sending the game into overtime.

 

My job at The World-Herald has given me access to some of college football’s most successful programs at various stages of building or maintaining, whether it was 15 years of day-to-day Husker coverage or more than 20 traveling the Big 12 and the Big Ten.

 

I can’t imagine Tom Osborne six days before the first game doing anything but dissecting film.

 

Barry Switzer? Eh, maybe, though he has been wrongly criticized for an alleged shortage of X’s and O’s acumen. Switzer could coach.

 

But I know Bill Snyder wouldn’t be caught dead at a baseball game — or anywhere else outside the complex — during football season. Neither would Gary Barnett or Urban Meyer or Jim Harbaugh or Mark Dantonio.

 

With the stakes and the salaries as high as they are, the work must be put in. But if it is at Nebraska, it doesn’t show.

 

This ain’t intramurals, brother. Someone has to set a premium standard for work again. And it better happen soon.

 

http://www.omaha.com/huskers/football/barfknecht-huskers-lack-tom-osborne-and-former-administration-s-internal/article_8294ab84-c802-11e7-b611-5b958b55918c.html

[Making Chimichangas]

@Toe, thanks for that link.  I completely missed that.  Oh well, water under the bridge now.

[lo country]

1 hour ago, Making Chimichangas said:

@Toe, thanks for that link.  I completely missed that.  Oh well, water under the bridge now.

Coaches need time off from the pressures of the job.  Hell, everyone does.  IMHO, this shows the patience NU fans will have for Frost.  He's not an outsider.  He's one of us.  Native son, prodigal son etc...  I am hoping those feel good attitude continues by all when he hits some bumps (and he will).  Patience and grace towards this transition will pay huge dividends down the road.  

[Making Chimichangas]

1 hour ago, lo country said:

Coaches need time off from the pressures of the job.  Hell, everyone does.  IMHO, this shows the patience NU fans will have for Frost.  He's not an outsider.  He's one of us.  Native son, prodigal son etc...  I am hoping those feel good attitude continues by all when he hits some bumps (and he will).  Patience and grace towards this transition will pay huge dividends down the road.  

 

I agree.  And I am also concerned that people will hit the "over-react / panic" button as soon as the first bit of adversity hits.  I think this team can go 12-0 in the regular season.  Now I don't expect 12-0 and I realize the road schedule is brutal.  But the potential is there.  The main things I want to see in '18 are: a) play hard every snap (max effort), b) look like they've practiced, watched film, and know what the other team is doing from the outset of the game, and c) be fundamentally sound and physical in all phases.  I figure they do those three things and the wins (lots of them) will come.

[HuskermanMike]

I like it, coaches are human too. By game planing all day long you just put stress on yourself and you miss enjoying life. Scott Frost gets it, he wants to see his family just like the rest of his staff and other people. So why not let them do it? They are still going to be working a long time, but 100 hours a week by every coach will not win/lose you a game. Time management is really important in everything you do and I believe this staff has perfected that. They have a plan to run practice effectively, work effectively and get the free time they need all without missing a beat. I don't think working one less hour over the offseason or during fall camp wins/losses you games in November. Develop a plan, stick to it, believe in it and execute it well and you will win ball games. I am so excited to see how this year plays out because even though it is a transition year, for some reason it doesn't feel like one.

[runningblind]

38 minutes ago, HuskermanMike said:

 I am so excited to see how this year plays out because even though it is a transition year, for some reason it doesn't feel like one.

I agree with this.  Mostly because there is nowhere to go but up.

[CheeseHusker]

I always got the idea that Callahan and Pelini on their respective sides of the ball had schemes and ideas that were just too complex. It seems to me like a lot of the players were probably made to overthink, especially defense.... that's why our terrible defenses always seemed to be reactive and not proactive. That's just killer.

 

Simplify it. You can still ask guys to play hard, but give them simplified tasks and fewer thoughts. I compare it to golf... having one or two swing thoughts to concentrate on is so much better than trying to think about all those mechanics. Play more on instinct and feel and less on the technical.

[lo country]

For too many years, NU has failed at the basics.  Tackling, poor execution, penalties etc.....Things that unless fixed, regardless of how awesome the scheme, still result in losses.  Concentrate on the little things and the big things will fix themselves.  

 

It sounds a lot like TO's philosophy.  Get a system that is simplistic in design (not 10o's of different plays/reads etc), but complex and multiple in the variety of fronts you can execute from (the plays are the same just run from different formations).  To the opposing teams, it appears to be numerous plays to prepare for and defend against....  Become great at somethings instead of ok at a lot.  Develop the performance level through rep after rep after rep.....Make it so the players can execute in their sleep. Then when needed, add a tweak here and there.  

[teachercd]

On 3/16/2018 at 8:56 PM, Toe said:

^ People gave Riley flak for attending a Salt Dogs game just before the start of the season last year...

They did and I don't get it.  Many coaches have turned themselves almost into martyrs (Sweet movie) when it comes to the amount of time they claim to put in.

 

I can remember years ago my high school coach was telling us how when it was all said and done that he was basically paid like 75 cents an hour to coach us...because of all the hours he put in compared to his coaching stipend.  I remember thinking how stupid that sounded.

 

I have coached for a long time now and there are some "hidden" hours...But if you feel the need to be in your office during the offseason from 6am until 10pm..You are either doing it wrong or you don't want to be at home or your work environment is so fun that you want to be at "the office"

 

I will say this, I have had some coaches that I worked with that made it so much fun that hanging out in the coaches offices well before and well after games was a blast.

 

This is just my thought on the topic but I think over the last 20 years or so the shift has been this:

I think since most coaches basically can't go out in public anymore (for dinner or drinks or screwing around) that they decided to hide at the office instead.

[Enhance]

On 3/17/2018 at 12:42 AM, Toe said:

Article from Barfy @ OWH, written after the Minnesota loss:

 

 

http://www.omaha.com/huskers/football/barfknecht-huskers-lack-tom-osborne-and-former-administration-s-internal/article_8294ab84-c802-11e7-b611-5b958b55918c.html

I forgot about that article. Thanks for sharing.

 

It felt like a ridiculous take at the time. Still does.

[HS_Coach_C]

1 hour ago, lo country said:

For too many years, NU has failed at the basics.  Tackling, poor execution, penalties etc.....Things that unless fixed, regardless of how awesome the scheme, still result in losses.  Concentrate on the little things and the big things will fix themselves.  

 

It sounds a lot like TO's philosophy.  Get a system that is simplistic in design (not 10o's of different plays/reads etc), but complex and multiple in the variety of fronts you can execute from (the plays are the same just run from different formations).  To the opposing teams, it appears to be numerous plays to prepare for and defend against....  Become great at somethings instead of ok at a lot.  Develop the performance level through rep after rep after rep.....Make it so the players can execute in their sleep. Then when needed, add a tweak here and there.  

Completely agree.  It's much better to be really good at a few things than very average at a lot of things.  Fundamentals need to improve big time.

 

One red flag from UCF last year that will likely show up at Nebraska this year as they shift to the new offense: penalty yards

 

UCF was 116th of 129 teams in fewest penalty yards last year.  They averaged 8.4 penalties per game for 68 penalty yards per game.  Hopefully that gets cleaned up here in the first year or two.  The good thing at least is this offense actually has the capability to overcome penalties, as opposed to the "1st and 20, we'll throw 3 straight YOLO bombs and punt" offense.