Coaching A Football Team

How does a coach keep football players motivated?

That is a good question because coaching football deals with a lot different personalities and every player is different. You cannot yell at every player. Some players you have to talk to and to keep my players motivated I try to tell them that “Hi, this is a short time in your life. Once it is over it is over and you would not get this chance to play anymore. So take advantage of your opportunity to play this game right now because you do not want to play the “what if” game when you're done playing this game and say I wish I had done this, what if I had done this”. So I try to tell them that ” Hi, this is a great time in your life. I am speaking from experience, I have played this game a long time and it has given me a lot and once it is over it is over. So you got to take advantage of your opportunities”.

How many coaches are on a football team?

It depends. I mean, your going to have; you're definitely going to have your head coach. Your offense and defense coordinators. Your offensive line coach; your defensive line coach. Receiver coach. Quarterback coach. Defensive back coach. You might even have a safety coach. Your linebacker coach. And you also have some assistants that help out; as far as an assistant to an assistant. It just depends on what team you are. You'll definitely have anywhere between ten, fifteen. And you might even have more than that. So it just depends on the team.

What does a head coach do?

Depending on which head coach. I mean, some head coaches are also coordinators. If you notice someone like Mike Shanahan from the Broncos, he's the head coach, but he's also the offensive coordinator. Some coaches are not, some coaches are just the "head figure". They control the team, they help keep the team in discipline, they also help keep the team motivated; their job is to keep them together. And so, every head coach is different, because some coaches are coordinators. So, it just depends on the head coach.

What are some different coaching philosophies?

There's always been some different philosophies that have been thrown out there, "He's old school", or "He's a player's coach", or "He's 'this and that'", but the key thing is: they're all player's coaches. They all deal with players on an everyday basis. Now, whether they yell at them, scream at them, or they talk to them, just depends on the coach. I think both philosophies work, depending on the player. You can't rip a kid every single play and then expect him to respect you. If you're going to break them down you've got to build them back up, and that's my philosophy. I yell at my kids, or I discipline them, but I also know how to talk to them and say, "Hey, I've been through this. Listen to me, I know how to get there. So if you follow me, you'll get there too!"There's different ways to approach kids. I've never really responded well when guys yelled and yelled at me. I've been yelled at as a player plenty of time, but I've also had coaches that talked to me. You've got to have a balance of both.

What makes a great football team?

There's a variety of things that make a great football team. You got to have a good coaching staff that knows to teach and knows how to motivate and knows how to keep what's called "decorum," which means discipline. You got to have great players. There's no doubt about it. You can be, you can know all the football you can in the world, but if you don't have a great team behind you, you won't be a great coach. So the key to having a good football team is having players that are willing to commit what you're doing offensively and defensively and buy into the team philosophy. And also have coaches that know how to teach it and know how to get their players motivated.