Joe Daniel Football Quick Clinic

No matter how good your athletes are, playing a great man coverage package takes a lot of work. Just like any other coverage you’re going to have to put in a lot of time getting the technique just right. And if you have great athletes running man coverage with poor technique, you might really be taking away from their ability. In this episode, we take a look at how much man coverage to run when you have a great set of Defensive Backs.

Coaching the linebacker stance for your defense seems like such a simple thing. Feet apart, squat down, eyes up, back flat… you know the basic coaching cues. But I see a lot of coaches making just a handful of mistakes that really cost your defense. You may not even know it. The cost of mistakes in stance isn’t as obvious as bad tackling or poor key reads. But the cost to fix these stance problems is cheap. You need to do it.

I've done a lot of experimenting with different schemes, but half-slide pass protection has been the primary protection scheme in the Pistol Power Offense for several years. It just makes sense with what we do. That's the critical key. It makes sense with what we do. The protection scheme is intricately tied into the entire passing scheme. The check release by the back is critical to the Quarterback's trigger reads.

We usually only hear the 5-3 Defense associated with youth football defense today. For coaches trying to learn the defense, it’s hard to find as much information as you might find about a 4-4 Defense. There’s great news though. This is a great defense for stopping the run at the youth level. But it’s actually being run at High School and College programs across the country. Just by a different name. This episode takes a look at the basics of the 5-3 Defense, and how you can learn more about running it if you decide it is right for your football team.

When they hit the football coaching scene a few years ago, defensive coordinators were scratching their heads defending RPOs. But while it's a great tool for offenses to attack, run pass options are not as mystical as they may seem. If you've got a good RPO team on your schedule this season, you don't need to panic and change your whole defense. Follow the 5 tips for defending RPO's in this podcast to shut 'em down.

The force player in football is responsible for turning run plays back to the spill defenders. In this episode we define the role of the force defender and how to identify who he is in your defense. I'm also answering a listener question on the force player in the 4-3 Defense with 2-high safeties.

My favorite comment when we post a new 4-2-5 Defense article or podcast to the Joe Daniel Football Facebook Page has got to be, “So it’s a nickel defense ”. You got me, dude. There seems to be a small counsel of football terminology gatekeepers out there. No one knows who appointed them, or what authority they have. But they’re pretty sure they have it. Today’s episode of the JDFB Quick Clinic isn’t to fight those guys. After all, they’re right! The 4-2-5 Defense and the 3-3-5 Defense are at least, in theory, a Nickel Defense. But it is important to talk about terminology and what we mean when we say Nickel Defense. While it can certainly be used to describe a 4-2-5 Defense, and there is no harm in doing so, most coaches are not talking about the two as being one and the same. Nickel Defense or Nickel Package? The most common place you’ll hear coaches talking about a Nickel is really not in describing a 4-2-5 Defense. As I’ve pointed out many times, the 4-2-5 Defense that we’re running is really the same as a

When you look at that exchange film and find out you’ll be defending a running quarterback this week, it gives you the chills. The best athlete on the field is going to have the ball in his hands on every single snap. But don’t worry. There is hope. Check out this week’s JDFB Quick Clinic for a few simple tips to prepare your defense for that tough assignment. You can listen to the episode using the player at the bottom of this post or wherever podcasts are available. Game Planning for Defending a Running Quarterback There’s a few big mistakes coaches make when preparing to defend athletic QBs. We’re focusing on shutting down a quarterback that is a primary runner here. This is NOT about defending the extremely dangerous Dual Threat Quarterback. That’s a whole different discussion. The first step to defending a running quarterback is making sure you’re really seeing what you think you are seeing. Is that play really a Zone Read? Or is it a designed QB keep? While they may look the same, the blocking scheme co

Drawing up complex X's and O's on a napkin can be a lot of fun, but the best offenses often rely on very simple football plays that just plain work. Not always sexy, but they get the job done. The inspiration for this episode was a conversation on our private Chalk Board Forum for JDFB Coaching Systems clients about some simple football plays for a youth football team. Then the topic of the Wedge Play came up. That got my thinking. The Best Simple Football Plays At JDFB it's always about the Coach Simple, Play Fast, Win philosophy. If you're not familiar with that yet, you can learn all about this core principle here. The basics are this: Keep your coaching simple so that your kids understand what they are being asked to do. That gives your players confidence to execute. Confident players play fast. No paralysis by analysis. Fast kids win more football games. I've worked with a lot of football programs. That Coach Simple philosophy has never failed. I've never had a coach come back and say, "we just didn't ha

If you've decided to simplify your defense with a spot drop coverage, you're probably looking at how to play cover 3 vs 4 verticals. Coaches are realizing the value of the spot drop cover 3's simplicity but offensive coaches are licking their chops to attack it, too. This week's episode of the JDFB Quick Clinic looks at key points for coaching the deep third defenders. From the basics of Cover 3 alignment and the zone turn, to the much more difficult question of how to stop those 4 vertical attacks. Critical Free Safety Coaching Points for Cover 3 vs 4 Verticals The Free Safety is by far the most critical part of how your defense will handle 4 verticals with any 1-high safety coverage. He's got to be patient and stay centered or the Quarterback will take advantage when he picks a side. Most QBs are taught to look off the Free Safety to attack the seams. Along with staying in his peddle and not getting drawn to a side early, he needs to also key the Quarterback to see the ball come out of his hand. Good Free S

When you see that big time coordinator on the sidelines covering his face with that football play call sheet, it's pretty exciting. You think that's just what a football coach is supposed to look like. What you need to have in your hand on game day to be official. This week's JDFB Quick Clinic takes a look at those offensive and defensive call sheets. What needs to be on your call sheet? And do you even need one in your hands? Do You Need a Football Play Call Sheet? Before you start downloading templates and filling out every call in your playbook, take some time to consider if you even need a play call sheet. If you can't remember your play calls, do you have too much? The Coach Simple, Play Fast, Win philosophy does not rely on a big playbook. You aren't trying to win a chess match. You're putting the faith in your athletes to execute on the field on game day. You keep the play calls simple so that your players are confident in what they're being asked to do, so that they can play at a high level on game da

There's a special challenge for linebackers in defending jet sweep motion. When they see it, they forget everything they've been taught and start chasing the shiny object. The Jet Sweep run play is a lot more dangerous because of what it does to your defenders, than it is as an actual yardage gainer. This week's JDFB Quick Clinic focuses on how to adjust to Jet Sweep motion. It doesn't matter what defensive front you're running, because your defensive front shouldn't be the ones trying to stop the jet sweep. This is more about your coverage. Threats from Jet Sweep Motion There are more threats from the jet sweep motion than just the jet sweep itself. Your plan for defending the motion starts with knowing the biggest threats it creates for your defense. Along with the jet sweep, you need to be ready for plays that can attack your defensive front. Those include the Jet Read variation of Power Read, and any inside run game where the jet sweep motion is just being used as window dressing. You'll also need to be r

Get the best Offensive Line Drills so you get the best performance out of your Offensive Linemen. Your practice time is too limited to run hundreds of different drills. What drills should actually run? Over the past couple years, since turning to the 90 Minute Practice Plan, I've had to really examine just which Offensive Line drills were worth what little practice time we had to work. 80/20 for Offensive Line Drills Enter the Pareto Principle, or the 80/20 Rule. Just in case you don't already know it, the Pareto Principle says that 20% of the work you put in produces 80% of the results. That's critical for football coaches to understand. Out of all those cool drills and gimmicks you see at clinics and in catalogs, only 20% are really worth doing. This episode of the JDFB Quick Clinic looks at applying the Pareto Principle to your Offensive Line Drills. I always hear coaches complaining about how little individual time they have to work with their guys. Or just practice time in general. You're probably better

Coaches can learn a lot from tagging your game film in Hudl. You can also waste a lot of time.  Hudl and other video analysis tools are a powerful tool for football coaches. Not only can you can quickly share film with your next opponent, your entire staff and all of your players. But you can get a ton of data when you tag your film properly. The problem a lot of coaches run into is figuring out what to tag to actually get a real result. They might tag everything under the sun, or nothing at all. In this episode, I’ll share what I tag on a game film or exchange film - and what order we’ll do it in, based on time available. You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.

Can you still spill the football with slow linebackers? Find out why teaching run fits isn’t about your players’ talents.  This week’s question for the JDFB Quick Clinic is about the spill technique in the Miami 4-3 Defense, but it’s about more than that. This is about the importance of consistent teaching. And it’s about myths and misconceptions in coaching. The idea that one defense works for this type of player, or one style works for another set of athletes - and you should jump around to find them. This episode is about building your defense on core principles, not a playbook or something you heard at a clinic. This was a response to a listener question sent by twitter. You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.

Long Stick Technique is used by Defensive Ends in zone blitzes like the America’s Fire Zone. Find out how to coach it.  If you want to run zone blitzes, you need to commit the time to execute. America’s Fire Zone is a great zone blitz, one of the most popular overloads you can run. But you can get yourself in trouble in a hurry. The Long Stick technique is critical. This is how we get the defensive end to control A gap if he’s needed there - and how to get him in on the play when he’s not.  This was a response to a listener question sent by twitter. You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.

What’s the best key to read for Linebackers in the 33 Stack Defense? Don’t make it hard.  Lots of coaches have tried lots of different reads for linebackers over time. We’re all looking for that perfect answer so that no matter what happens, we can tell our linebackers that if they just read their key they’ll always be right. That leads to a lot of over-complicated key reads. And the 33 Stack Defense is no different. In today’s episode we’ll talk about the options you have for teaching key reads to your 3-3-5 Defense or 3-5-3 Defense Linebackers, including how to get the Mike Linebacker the cleanest read. This was a response to a listener question sent by email. You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.

Never underestimate a good mailbag episode. We hit on some important topics that you need to hear.  This is the final mailbag episode for a while, since we’ve caught up to 2020 finally! And there’s a few good ones in here. Even if we touch on them a lot. You’ll find out the most important aspects of turning around a losing culture on your football team. It’s not as complicated as many folks make it sound. Plus get the answer to whether you should run the 4-3 Defense or the 4-2-5 Defense. Or at least some help making the decision. This was a response to a listener questions sent by twitter. You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.

What do you do when you’ve got a dangerous running Quarterback, but your offense isn’t geared to him? You adjust.  Any Offensive System that is worth its salt is able to utilize the best athletes on the field. If that’s not the case, you don’t have a System. Because you’re going to have to completely change the offense for a special athlete one day. In the Pistol Power Offense System, we have multiple ways to utilize athletes all over the field. Today’s question is about using the Quarterback in your run game in a System that is not on the surface designed to do that.  Find out how easy it is to adapt and utilize the best player on the field with multiple ways to get your Quarterback involved in the run game. This was a response to a listener question sent by twitter. You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.