The Peter Principle - Why Some Coaches Can't Get Ahead

Introduction

I did a series on a book called The Holiness of God on my FCA-Devotional Blog and I stumbled upon something very interesting that related to the coaching profession. This book references another book called The Peter Principle by Dr. Lawrence J. Peter and Raymond Hull that is somewhat of a classic in the business world. It says that people tend to rise to their level of incompetence in corporate structures. This was based on the observation that new employees typically start out at the bottom, and then as they display competence, they are promoted. Eventually, they reach a level in which they are no longer successful, and they are stuck at that level of incompetence. The net result is that most of the higher positions in corporate structures will all be filled with incompetents.

Not everyone gets caught in the trap of the Peter Principle. There are two categories of people who escape the trap: the super-incompetent and the super-competent. The super-incompetent person has no opportunity to move up to his level of incompetence because he is already at his level of incompetence. Competency is needed to be promoted, and the super-incompetent will never be promoted.

The real irony is found in the super-competent group. How does the super-competent person rise through the corporate structures to get to the top? He doesn’t. The reason is that he represents a massive threat to those above him. His bosses are frightened by him, fearful that he will take their jobs. He represents a clear and present danger to them that they will lose their seats of honor and power. The super-competent is more likely to be fired than the super-incompetent, because the boss can most likely find a job that the super-incompetent can do.

Virginia Tech Helmet Study

Nice to see that more is being done in terms of helmets and safety research. Here is the link to the ESPN article by Gregg Easterbrook which can be found here:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=easterbrook-110719_virginia_tech_helmet_study&sportCat=nfl.

Some highlights of the article:

"Virginia Tech researchers give high marks to these helmets: the Riddell Speed, Riddell Revolution, Riddell Revolution IQ; the Schutt Ion 4D and Schutt DNA; and the Xenith X1. The Virginia Tech researchers give medium grades to the Schutt Air XP and Schutt Air Advantage. The Virginia Tech rankings warn players not to wear these helmets: the Riddell VSR4 and the Adams A2000."

"Now the chilling part: the VSR4 -- Virginia Tech's second-lowest-rated helmet -- was the most common helmet in the NFL last season. The VSR4 is widely worn in college and high school, too. Immediately after the Virginia Tech findings were released, Riddell advised football teams to stop using the VSR4, long the company's best seller."

"Duma further notes there is no correlation between helmet price and safety. The lowest-ranked helmet, the Adams A2000, costs $200, while the four-star Schutt DNA retails for $170. The DNA looks like the best value on the market -- nearly as good in safety ranking as the top-rated Riddell Speed, but costs about $75 less. This can matter if you're buying 100 helmets for a high school or small college."

"The NFL's data, and this study conducted at the University of Pittsburgh, suggest that advanced helmets -- basically the ones Virginia Tech found to be four- or five-star -- lower the risk of concussion by about one-third."

Manny Diaz Fire Zones

I will try to build on the superb efforts of Brophy’s Manny Diaz: Bulletproof Fire Zone article and talk more about Diaz's Fire Zone scheme, which is ridiculously simple to learn for his players yet is complex for opposing Offensive Coordinators.  I will focus on two important aspects of his Fire Zone scheme.  First, I will look at how he is able to transition easily between multiple fronts and second, I will explain his “run to daylight” philosophy.

Levels - part 2

I didn't go into the Trips variations with the Levels concept in my last post, so here are some notes on Levels that I took at a clinic from former Florida QB Coach Scot Loeffler.  The numbers underneath the WRs in the first drawing represent the WR splits from the OT:

Levels

Levels is one of the very best pass plays to attack the Cover 2 pass defense.  Smash (Hitch by the #1 outside WR and Corner by #2) is most people's weapon of choice vs. Cover 2, but Levels has a shorter and easier throw than Smash and the Dig route to the field has better leverage on the hash safety than a Corner route does.  Safety Leverage is one of the most underrated aspects of the passing game IMO.  Also, on Levels your QB is reading the OLB vs. Smash where he is reading the CB, who is generally the defense's quickest and best pass defender.  Smash can be dangerous vs. a CB who is good enough to play both the Hitch and the Corner route.

Getting Organized

Whew!  I have finally finished organizing all of my football files.  Back in the day, all I had on my old website were the files, but these were neglected those a bit after I started with the blog format and the kids were born.  

The site as it first looked in 2007

Let me give a bit of a background on the site.  I had to create a lot of files and forms in my first coaching job down in south Florida at Deerfield Beach H.S. as somewhat of a "Administrative Assistant" to the Head Coach (fancy way of saying secretary, lol).  This experience proved beneficial as I was able to help people on Coach Huey who were looking for a practice schedule or any kind of form.  Also, once I first got on Huey, there was an information overload with playbooks and all of the files that coaches shared on the site.  I was becoming a coach who had a million files on my flash drive but couldn't find anything, so I knew I had to get more organized.

How Much to Install?

As a firm believer in KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) philosophy, I liked this article by Alan from The Press Box Analysis talking about why Less is More with regards to playbooks.

Chris from Smart Football with Why Every Team Should Install its Offense in Three Days.  The Air Raid offense is really tremendous from the standpoint of having as few plays as possible to attack every area of the field and to complement the other plays in its system.

Tony Demeo article on Installing an Offense - Year One

A good article on the methods of memorizing playbooks by NFL players here.

Eric Winston, Houston Texans OT, had a good quote in this ESPN article about the size of playbooks:

"I've always wondered why coaches preach 'execution, execution, execution' and have 500-page playbooks. It's hard for those things to coexist."

Also, I am working on revamping the site and updating all of the files (long overdue).

Links

Deuce with Defense...The Basics.  He also talks about some good ideas in installing a defense.

The Press Box Analysis with good quotes from college coaches in his article What's the No. 1 stat that separates winners and losers in CFB?.

Coach B Dud with OL videos here. 

Football Coach Academy with 7 Elements Important to Building a Successful Program by Bob Stoops.

Brophy with the hook-up:  Bama post with Nick Saban's 2009 defensive playbook.

Blitzology with Blitz of the Week #17. 

Steve Mariucci - QB Play - Blaine Gabbert, Christian Ponder

Steve Mariucci goes over some QB drills with Blaine Gabbert and Christian Ponder.  He has some good points about throwing on the run.  Also, he gets both QBs on the chalkboard and has them explain some pass concepts.

Steve Mariucci - QB Play - NFL Network - Blaine Gabbert and Christian Ponder from Barry Hoover on Vimeo.

3-5 Resources

I've got the 2008 GMC (Georgia Military College) playbook files for all you us 3-5 guys.  Actually, I have to include myself now because our DC is switching to the 3-5 this year as well.  For all you tekkies, google docs has a sweet new deal where you can upload an entire folder at once:

Sweet!

Here is the folder link as well as some other 3-5 resources to check out:

2008 GMC Playbook

Coach B Dud - Running the 3-5 Defense  - Excellent article.  The easiest system I have seen for naming blitzes with the 3-5.

Hit 'Em Hard - 3-5-3 Basics, 3-5 Defense Run Fits - Coach Hjorth has a good intro to the 3-5 with more articles to come soon with LB Reads, Blitzes, and Coverages. 

LB Keys in the Odd Stack Defense - William Mitchell - Brunswick HS (GA) - good article about LB Reads vs. I formation, Wing-T / Dbl Wingbacks, and Spread.

Coach Huey.com - many great coaches on here that know a lot about the 3-5 and everything else that you might need.

Also, our HC is looking for some Bellevue (WA) Wing-T cut-ups. Email me at gunrun73@gmail.com if you would be willing to trade.

Houston

My friend has contributed another article:

It is a pleasure to be back on the world famous Coach Hoover blog. Today, I’m going to share another concept I learned from the Urban Meyer/Dan Mullen offense. I am not 100% sure of where it came from, but I was once told a story about this awesome play that they called “Houston.” Rumor has it that it was taken from the Minnesota Vikings with the primary purpose of beating Quarters. Ok, well that’s pretty much it for my story. I have made a few adjustments to the original concept, and overall it has been good for me. I view it as a multi-purpose zone coverage beater. It is OK against man, but not my favorite call. In this article, I will explain the Houston concept as a drop-back pass, show you how it can be effective against different coverages, and then show a few different play-action variations.

Below is the basic play out of a 3 x 1 formation.

Follow Pivot

A good friend of mine wanted to anonymously contribute this article:

As a big fan of football coaching blogs, I am honored to be able to contribute some of my thoughts that will hopefully help some people out there. I have learned a ton by reading articles like this, and I wanted to return the favor.

Today I’m going to talk about one of my favorite plays that is popular in College Football today. It may be popular in the NFL too, but who has time to watch that on Sundays? I first learned this play while studying the Meyer/Mullen Florida Gator Offense. I remember sitting at their first Spring Clinic, listening to Dan Mullen talk. Mullen explained that their offense mainly used five passing concepts: All-Go, Smash, Houston (maybe another article in the future), H-Option, and Follow-Pivot. After studying the Follow-Pivot concept, I realized that it was very similar to the NCAA pass (Post-Dig-Drag). However, because of the distribution of routes, this concept is better suited to beat Quarters coverage.    

Creating DE Conflict

Dubber just had a great post here on this subject that you need to read if you haven't already. He says, "In football terms, keeping a defense 'off rhythm' is the name of the game."  He is correct.  This post will focus solely on the Defensive End position and how to put the DE in conflict in order to keep him off-rhythm. 

Urban Meyer talked about how much of what they did with their Spread offense at Florida was designed to control the DEs, because they are such tremendous athletes that they can take over a game by themselves.  These freaks of nature can really wreak havoc on an offense if allowed to get into a rhythm.  DEs that are strong and can run as fast as most RBs are a nightmare for an OT to try to block.  An Offensive Coordinator must  have plays designed to confuse and slow down the DE in order for the offense to have a chance and for his QB to survive.

2010 AFCA Convention (Orlando, FL) Notes

Here are the speakers and topics:

Josh Heupel - Oklahoma - QB Play

Decent talk, but everybody in the Big 12 was there and he wasn't going to give out anything too good.

Brandon Doman - BYU - QB Play

I liked listening to him a lot and how he described reads on Shallow and its variations.

Chargers Bunch Pass vs. Dolphins - AFC Playoffs - Jan. 8, 1995

The Dolphins and Chargers are back again in another playoff battle with a play not as well known as the Hook and Lateral, but nonetheless still extremely important in the history of football X's and O's. The Chargers won this game with one of the best designed plays I have ever seen, even to this day. This one killed me as a Dolphins fan (and still does every time I watch it), but even then I had to tip my hat to the Offensive Coordinator for designing this masterpiece of a play and for calling it at the perfect time with the game on the line.

The Chargers lined up in a Bunch formation with motion by the inside WR to help shake man coverage. Check out the end-zone copy at the end of the video to get a good look at the Backside Guard pulling and the WR sneaking through the LOS. I think that the collective jaws of everyone watching the game fell to the floor when they saw this play, and I remember the announcers replaying it like 20 times—it really was that sweet. It is my opinion that this was one of the greatest offensive plays ever drawn up and executed in the history of professional football. Here it is:

Chargers Bunch Pass vs. Dolphins - AFC Playoffs - Jan. 8, 1995 from Barry Hoover on Vimeo.

Links:

Terrific football blog that I had never seen before that you must check out: http://codeandfootball.wordpress.com/

Deuce does a great job of talking about Midline and all its variations: http://footballislifeblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/midline.html

Dacoachmo posted his Indy Glazier Clinic notes:

http://highspeedspreadfootball.blogspot.com/2011/03/indy-clinic-notes.html

Chris at Smart Football with clip of Missouri QB Drills:

http://smartfootball.com/quarterbacking/quarterback-drills-with-missouris-dave-yost-guru-dude

RUNCODHIT with Part 2 on Stopping the Power Run Game with the 4-2-5: http://runcodhit.blogspot.com/2011/03/stopping-power-running-offense-with-4-2_10.html 

Wrong-Arm Technique

Good discussion on Coach Huey about the Wrong-Arm technique here.  I'm better with pictures and video than I am with words, so is here is my take on the Wrong-Arm technique.  The Wrong-Arm technique vs. Power is pretty straightforward, and I will get to it later.  The Wrong-Arm technique vs. Counter is not as straightforward and cause for some debate, so I will tackle it first. 

The diagram below shows the Fox DE initially obeying his Block-Down-Step-Down rules vs. the OT.  If he follows his hands, his technique will take him right into the pulling Guard.  How he attacks the Guard is the key to stopping the Counter play.  If he literally obeys his Wrong-Arm rule and attacks the inside shoulder of the pulling Guard with his outside shoulder, he will be pinned easily and the pulling Tackle will not miss a beat coming around for the LB.  The defense has forced the ball to bounce outside, but nothing is being disrupted.  It is important to remember that maximum disruption is the goal and purpose of Wrong-Arming.

Triple Inside Fire Zone - Dick LeBeau

This Dick LeBeau Zone Blitz has already been talked about on Blitzology's Blog here and on Smartfootball.com here.  I liked it so much that I started digging through my video library of blitzes to find a cut-up of it.  It has 5 blitzers to attack vs. the middle 3 of the OL.  I  especially like that the blitz makes it possible to avoid the offense's two best pass protectors, the OTs. 

The picture below is a page from Dick LeBeau's playbook when he was the Head Coach for the Bengals:
2002 Cincinnati Bengals 3-4 Defense - Dick LeBeau.pdf

Double Slant

Double Slant is a great quick-game concept vs. Cover 2 or any type of Man coverage.  The key is the route by the inside WR.  He doesn't just run upfield and then slant inside.  He has a very specific aiming point at the inside # of the #2 defender.  I chose the video at the end of the article as a teaching cut because it demonstrates this technique extremely well.  Success in the passing game is not about drawing up cool-looking plays—like everything else in football, its success is mostly due to fundamentals and proper technique...by the the receivers, the QB, and especially the protection.

Clinic Notes

These files are on my scribd.com account but they are now charging people to download these, so here are all the FREE links to these files. I updated these links on rest of the site, too.  

Zone Blocking - Ken Wilmesherr - Grossmont College.pdf
2002 Cincinnati Bengals 3-4 Defense - Dick LeBeau.pdf
2003 Atlanta Falcons 3-4 Defense - Wade Phillips.pdf
2010 S.E. Flexbone Clinic.pdf
2010 Georgia Southern Clinic.pdf
2010 Atlanta Glazier Clinic.pdf
2009 Minneapolis Glazier Clinic - Dewayne Alexander - Cumberland Univ.doc
2009 Minneapolis Glazier Clinic - Buzz Preston - Ga. Tech.pdf
2004 UCF Clinic.pdf
2003 Orlando Nike Clinic.pdf
2003 Univ. of Miami Clinic.pdf  
2002 FACA Winter Clinic.pdf
2001 FACA Winter Clinic.pdf
2001 Univ. of Miami Clinic.pdf 
2001 Lee Perry Clinic (Miami).pdf
2001 Orlando Nike Clinic.pdf

WR Grading

I grade on two categories and I give a plus or a minus, but you can do it the same way with points. The first category I grade on is alignment and assignment. This includes the proper WR split for the play and running the pattern to the correct depth on a pass or blocking the correct man on a run. The second category is effort and execution. If a guy goes to block (taking the correct angle of approach) and his man gets by him, that would be a plus for the first category and a minus for the second category. If he was standing straight up and he gets juked badly, that would be two minuses. A loaf or a drop is also an automatic double minus.




I would like to do a blog article in the future on this with cut-ups from my old school to show how to grade. A lot of times coaches give a player a grade, but it doesn't necessarily reflect how well the player played. It is for this reason that many coaches see grading as a waste of time.



What I do to get my grades to accurately reflect performance is to give 3 or 4 pluses/minuses for something really good or bad. I rarely give out the 4 pluses on a play. A pancake or a great hustle block would definitely get three pluses. A penalty or costly mental mistake would probably be 3 minuses. This way if a guy plays well, he will have a grade that reflects that.



If I can get guys to score 80% I am happy. That is an A, 75% is a B, and 70% is a C. If they are less than 70%, they are not working that hard and they have better had caught a TD or they will be losing reps the next week. Guys going both ways may be in the 67% range, but your expectations must stay high. For that reason, I like to play a lot of guys to keep them fresh and the competition for reps forces everyone to push harder.

Bill Belichick Notes - 2009 Florida Clinic

I am a bit limited this year with going to clinics, so I am going back through some of my old clinic notes.  Bill Belichick is the best presenter that I have ever had the chance to hear at a clinic, so I wanted to share these notes.  He shared a lot of good, sound fundamental ideas on Offense, Defense, and Special Teams.

Urban Meyer intro: “The New England Patriots are the least penalized team in the league.  Their formula for success is simple but difficult: Talent, Discipline, and Leadership.”