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HS coaches success at college level (re Pruitt and Malzahn)

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canesman

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People discount the importance of a coaches ability to have 18 year old kids understand offensive and defensive schemes.

The biggest reason for our failures on D is Dnofrio's inability to get our younger players to understand the defensive concepts he is trying to teach. He is running Al Groh's defense which is very complex and led to Groh being fired at Georgia Tech. This forces us to play much less talented uperclassmen like Highsmith who "understand" the system but can't make a play. Golden has clearly shown he will choose the smarter player over the more physically talented player.

The trend of HS coaches being successful at the college level has alot to do with being forced to learn how to teach concepts to HS students. Chad Morris, Gus Malzahn, Jeremy Pruitt, etc.

Interesting quote from FSU player on Pruitt.

Pruitt produced instant results in his one season at Florida State.

"He taught us the ins and outs of everything," Florida State safety Terrence Brooks said recently. "Just the way to pursue to the ball, the way to go get the ball, everything you can think about in football he's taught us. He really broke the game down to us as to why we're running this type of defense.

"He makes you understand it so much better and I feel like everyone bought into it and that's why we're so successful."
 
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canesman said:
People discount the importance of a coaches ability to have 18 year old kids understand offensive and defensive schemes.

The biggest reason for our failures on D is Dnofrio's inability to get our younger players to understand the defensive concepts he is trying to teach. He is running Al Groh's defense which is very complex and led to Groh being fired at Georgia Tech. This forces us to play much less talented uperclassmen like Highsmith who "understand" the system but can't make a play. Golden has clearly shown he will choose the smarter player over the more physically talented player.

The trend of HS coaches being successful at the college level has alot to do with being forced to learn how to teach concepts to HS students. Chad Morris, Gus Malzahn, Jeremy Pruitt, etc.

Interesting quote from FSU player on Pruitt.

Pruitt produced instant results in his one season at Florida State.

"He taught us the ins and outs of everything," Florida State safety Terrence Brooks said recently. "Just the way to pursue to the ball, the way to go get the ball, everything you can think about in football he's taught us. He really broke the game down to us as to why we're running this type of defense.

"He makes you understand it so much better and I feel like everyone bought into it and that's why we're so successful."
Click to expand...

Very improtant point. If you are not teaching, you are not coaching! I taught math in Miami inner-city. Usually I have the lowest level kids. If they were going to learn anything, it had to be in pieces, small pieces. And, you needed to repeat it over and over again. By the time I got them they were very far behind, fustrated and behavior problems. I focused on giving the a little success each day to keep their attention. I remember big wigs from downtown coming into class and being shocked that I was still teaching division when their chart said I should be on something much more advance. Kids were in 8th grade and could still not divide, and these idiots thought they should have mastered complex equations already. Our talented players had never needed complex defensive systems to kick rear end on the field. We are wasting their college time trying to teach them something because it is on Al's chart. Give them what they can do and then feed in some complexity as they can absorb it and still play fast. Can't have 4.5 guy standing on the field trying to remember what the heck he is suppose to do.
 
I read something on Malzhan and he said he felt like his time in high school made him a better coach. The reason was because he learned to adapt what he wanted to do to his players strengths every year. In high school you have much less control over the players on your team. He wasn't constantly trying to force a square block into a round hole.
 
I think this is absolutely an incredible point OP. Someone needs to remind our coaching staff of this. Completely agree our players thrive when using simplistic schemes due to their superior athletic ability
 
Coaching, is a training or development process via which an individual is supported while achieving a specific personal or professional competence result or goal. (via Wikipedia) If your not teaching your not coaching..plain and simple. If you can't teach then why coach? *cough* D'Onofrio *cough*
 
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I've been lucky enough to see Art Briles, Chad Morris, Gus Malzahn and Todd Graham coach in high school. It's been very fun to see them have such success at the next level. I wish that Todd Dodge had been more patient and selective with his opportunity to make the jump, I think his name would be on this list also as a major success story.

I have several family members and friends that coach and I'm around a lot of their friends watching/talking football often.... lot of them act like it's rocket science, and no doubt there are countless variables on every play that the layperson never thinks about. With that said, the best coaches I know seem to share the trait of being able to simplify these things and let their athletes play fast and aggressively.
 
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Were the temple kids just smarter? And that allowed then to pick up the defense?
 
HS coaches may be more in tune with the thinking of kids coming into college. All the guys you mentioned are great X and O coaches but are also guys players trust and like playing for. In addition I think HS coaches can be more innovative as being in HS lets you experiment more, especially offensively. If I had to guess I'd say many guys that make the jump are outstanding recruiters because they know what HS coaches are looking for when they have kids looking at going to college.
 
Not a lot of teaching going on down here in the high school ranks. Certainly not a lot of complexity.

That's the issue.

Recruiting kids from South Florida (who have never been taught complex schemes) and then trying to teach them complex schemes from scratch.


However I will say this. Many of the kids on our defense aren't even from South Florida. Porter, Pierre, Gaines, Cornelius, Kirby, Highsmith, Gunter, Rodgers, Green, etc.

Maybe D'Onofrio just isn't a good teacher. Former high school guys excel in college because they K.I.S.S. They're used to scaling things down for their players.
 
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canesman said:
Read this....

http://miamiherald.typepad.com/umia...orgia-tech-defensive-coordinator-al-groh.html

then this....

http://blogs.ajc.com/georgia-tech-sports/2012/10/08/al-groh-fired-at-tech/
Click to expand...

Sound familiar?

"Groh’s tenure concluded in a blizzard of points, yards and missed tackles. In Tech’s past three games, losses to Miami, Middle Tennessee State and Clemson, the Yellow Jackets gave up an average of 46 points and 573.3 yards. Opponents converted 31 of 46 third downs into first downs. Improbably, Tech fared slightly worse when opponents faced 3rd-and-7 or longer than 3rd-and-6 or less."
 
Being a former high school dc, I thought I could come in implement all this stuff I learned by visiting local colleges and coaches clinics. At the end of the day I left those kids confused and really let them down. My best defenses were simple cover 1 and cover 3 coverages and let the kids fly around.
 
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