Joe Daniel Football Quick Clinic

The Iso Run Play is a classic downhill run play. But how can you make it safe in the modern game of football? This was a great question from a listener in response to an email I sent out last week. Like many of you, I’ve been watching a lot of old football… because there’s no new football. And those old school fullbacks got me thinking. What a great position! Lots of I-Formation running plays, and the Iso run play is one of the favorites. But the blocking… is it safe? Can we run this downhill attacking play, and still keep our players safe? 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.

What’s the ideal personnel for your 4-3 Defense Linebackers? Find out where to put your studs so you’re ready to dominate.  The Miami 4-3 Defense has been around since the early 1980s. One of it’s most impressive qualities is the versatility in adapting to the evolution of offensive football over the last 4 decades.  But that’s caused a little bit of a change in where you place your 4-3 Defense Linebackers to put them in the best position. In today’s episode, we’ll talk about where to play your best linebacker. Then we’ll look at the qualities of your other two positions to look for so your Miami 4-3 Defense maximizes the talents of your linebackers. 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.

No one knows when or if the 2020 High School Football Season will start. But we need to be prepared.  I’ve heard this question a lot - so today’s episode is not a response to one particular question. It’s a response to a lot of questions from a lot of places, and related to the pandemic that is affecting all of our lives right now.  How long does a High School football team actually need to get ready? I’ll share my thoughts on it here (and it’s not long). But football coaches are going to have to be prepared to get your team ready in that time.  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.

Now these are some good questions. Time to get back in a different sort of mailbag.  Usually when we do a mailbag show, it’s just a huge collection of stuff that wasn’t enough for a full episode from my Twitter DM’s. Not this time. This time it’s 4 questions from an email I sent out, hitting a little bit of everything. Here’s the topics… Best advice for a young coach OL vs DL Player Traits Defending Empty Sets Safety Reads These were a responses to listener questions 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.

The Jet Sweep is a great play, if you use it right in your offense. The big advantage comes from the counters.  Today’s JDFB Quick Clinic question is a great one. It’s about running counters off the Jet Sweep motion. Probably my favorite reason to even put the Jet Sweep in the playbook. In the Pistol Power Offense System, Jet Sweep is a fairly cheap play to install. You just use the same blocking as our basic stretch play. But it can have big advantages if you’re using the ‘counters’ we talk about in this episode. Jet Sweep make great window dressing! 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.

Defense is played Flat Down the Line. What does that even mean!?  Football is a weird game. There’s tons of terminology, and none of it is universal. So to a coach just starting out, it can be a very confusing world. Today’s JDFB Quick Clinic tries to explain one of those terms. “Defense is played flat down the line” is a phrase one of our listeners is hearing, and he’d like a little clarity on what it means. So I’ll do my best. 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.

It’s another dive into the Twitter Mailbag! We’re talking about Scout Team and off-season coaching preparation.  The Mailbag episodes have become a tradition. Not because they need to happen a lot. More because these are questions I never thought we could do a full episode on - then find out we could’ve done a full episode on half of them. Or more. We start off with a deep dive into why your scout team sucks. And the benefits of scout team wristbands.  Then it’s on to how to prepare yourself as a coach during the off-season. Old coach or new coach. Regular off-season or… whatever this 2020 off-season is (definitely not regular).   This was a response to a listener questions sent on 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.   Show Links Jason Hahnstadt’s Easy Football Game Planner includes templates you can use for your Scout Team wristbands.

Defending Bunch Formations and other condensed looks can put a lot of stress on your defense. Here’s how to balance it out.  Bunch formations are a great way to stress a defense by creating a condensed look for the defense. This week’s JDFB Quick Clinic question is about how you can shut ‘em down. We’re looking at a condensed bunch formation for this one, plus an adjustment to an unbalanced set. I’ll look at using both even and odd fronts. 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.

You finally got the big promotion. Your first coordinator gig. How do you prepare old coaches for the new changes? You can’t teach an old dog new tricks. That’s the saying. And if that’s true about the old dogs on your coaching staff, you might be in for a long season.  This week’s Quick Clinic question comes from a coach who was just promoted to Defensive Coordinator. He has a very experienced coaching staff, way beyond his own years, but he’s still got to get them ready to coach the new systems in season. How do you get it done?  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.

Cover 2 is a strong coverage in the right situations and with the right defensive front. With the wrong front, it’s broken.  Great questions this week about the 4-2-5 Defense. It’s a two-part question too, so you’ll even get some bonus content.  The first question is about running Cover 2 coverage and being forced to make adjustments on the weak side. There’s a reason it doesn’t work, and you’ll find that out in this episode. Then we’ll talk a little Option and Iso, and where that can fall apart too. 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.

You’re an expert at coaching one position. Now you find yourself being asked to coach something completely different. Great question for this week’s JDFB Quick Clinic. What do you do when you’re asked to coach a position that you know very little about?  It’s good for coaches to learn all facets of the game. If you want to be a coordinator or head coach one day, you should understand every position on the field. But how do you learn? How do you jump into that new position and do a great job for your team? Today’s question comes from 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.

Diving back into the Mailbag Questions this week for topics including defending Wing-T and setting the defensive strength. Time to get back to the mailbag for questions that aren’t quite in-depth enough for a full episode. These go all the way back to January 2019, and there’s some good questions! We’ll talk about defending the Wing-T with the Under Front. And how to get to an under front in the 4-2-5 Defense. Plus a look at setting the strength of your backfield, and more. 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.

Fundraising is a critical part of running a football program. Here’s a plan for a long-term fundraiser using email. A few months back on a podcast with Ron McKie, we talked about some out-of-the-box ideas for fundraising in our episode on leveling up your football team’s off-season. One that I’ve been getting a lot of questions about was the email fundraiser. On this episode of the JDFB Quick Clinic, I’ll talk about the basics. The shell of the plan. It’s not the ‘holding your hand’ step-by-step guide. But if you have the motivation to put it together, you can get a start with this episode. 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.

You put your time in. Now you’re moving up to the big show! Don’t worry, it’s not as hard as it seems. Great question on this week’s JDFB Quick Clinic, and one I hear a lot. You’ve put your time in at the Youth, Middle School, Freshman or JV levels… now you’re moving up. Moving up to the Varsity team.  And there’s some nerves. Some concern about whether you are really ‘ready’ for it. Or at least, you don’t know what to expect. How different will it be with the big kids? Not that different. In fact, the more you treat your guys the same… the better it should go.  This question was sent in on 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.

You know something is not right. This is not the job for you. How do you know the right time to look for a new team? Know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em. Kenny Rogers was right. Or The Gambler. Someone knew what they were talking about. Knowing when to walk away is tough. How do you know you’re on the wrong staff, or in the wrong situation? When is it time to start looking for your next job? And where do the players figure into all this?  Tough question. I’ll try to answer it on this episode of the JDFB Quick Clinic. This question was sent in on 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.

You’ve tried everything to get your Quarterbacks to throw the ball on time. But they still hold the ball too long! If you think today’s Quick Clinic question is just about Quarterbacks, you couldn’t be more wrong. And it’s no different no matter what level you coach, or where you coach.  This episode’s JDFB Quick Clinic question comes from a Quarterbacks Coach in England. He’s tried to get through to his QBs, but they just won’t throw the ball on time. They’re forever holding it and making the throws harder than they’d need to be if they were simply throwing with anticipation.  There’s a solution for that. But it’s not a fancy or sexy solution. It’s the one you need though. So check out this episode to find out what the solution is!  This question was sent in on 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.

Use coverage checks to get your defense in the best position to defend the route combinations. But don’t overcomplicate it. In our JDFB defensive coaching systems we use a number of basic coverage checks to get your secondary in the best position to defend potential route combinations. But we can’t be confused doing it - so it needs to stay simple. Today’s JDFB Quick Clinic question focuses on the 3 basic coverage checks that we use, particularly in man coverage, for defending route combinations based on alignment.  This question was sent in on 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.

Diving back into the Twitter DM’s for another Mailbag Episode! Find out why 7 on 7 is good, and why it’s not. Not every question that gets sent in for the JDFB Quick Clinic makes it to the air… until now! I’ve been working through the Twitter DM’s answering every question from 2018 and catching up on questions that might not have been ‘meaty’ enough for a full episode. In this run through the backlog, we talk about the good and bad of 7 on 7 club teams. When are they a benefit to athletes? When do they hurt your football team? Plus some tips on using Scout Team Wristbands to get better performance (again).   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.

Are you gunning for a Head Coach position this year? Be prepared for those weird interview questions. It’s that time of year when coaches are interviewing for new positions. Or just trying to get the interview experience for down the road. And there’s always a few weird interview questions that come up. Today’s question comes from Twitter and asks about the ‘5 Year Plan’ a coach expected to have prepared during an upcoming Head Coach interview. We’ll talk about your 5 year plan and what that interview panel really wants to hear. Check it out! Today’s question was sent on 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. Sign up for your Free MaxOne Demo

You’re shutting ‘em down on 1st and 2nd Down. Then it all falls apart on 3rd Down. What went wrong? Love this question for today’s JDFB Quick Clinic. If you’ve been running a defense for very long, this has happened to your team. You dominate on 1st and 2nd Down, but then you can’t get off the field. Seems like everything is clicking until you get the offense’s back against the wall. Then everything falls apart. Their players start making incredible plays and your guys seem to be completely flat.  Listen to this episode to learn how to figure out what went wrong, and how you can fix it. Today’s question was sent on 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. Sign up for your Free MaxOne Demo